APPENDIX XIII. The following guide to workmen's insurance in Germany by Dr. Zacher gives an exposition of the practical operations of the German law of insurance against the loss of wages in industrial accidents given above, Appendix down to 1904. Hon. Fred C. Schwedtman, Secretary of the National Association of Manufacturers, given in Part II of this report and read at the Columbus hearings furnishes an account of the operation and results of the working of the German law during the last few years. GUIDE TO WORKMEN'S INSURANCE OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. REVISED EDITION brought up to date for the UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT ST. LOUIS. 1904. Officially compiled by DR. GEORGE ZACHER, Imperial privy Counsellor, President of Senate in the Imperial Insurance Department. Imperial Printing Office, Berlin (Germany). PUBLISHED BY A. ASHER & Co., IN BERLIN AND LONDON W. C., 10TH EDITION. PRICE. For the German, English or French edition, for single copies each: 25 pfen. nigs, 6 cents; 3 pence; 30 centimes. For 50 copies each, 20 pfennigs, 5 cents, 2} pence, 25 centimes. For 100 copies each, 14 pfennigs, 4 cents, 2 pence, 20 centimes. THE EMPEROR'S MESSAGE. The work of conciliation and social reform in the German Empire was initiated by the Message of His Majesty the Emperor William I, to the Reichstag on the 17th of November, 1881. This message, as communicated by the Imperial Chancellor, Prince Bismarck, reads as follows: 'We consider it Our Imperial duty to impress upon the Reichstag the necessity of furthering the welfare of the working people. We should review with increased satisfaction the manifold successes, with which The Lord has blessed Our reign, could We carry with Us to the grave the consciousness of having given Our country an additional and lasting assurance of internal peace, and the conviction that We have rendered the needy that assistance to which they are justly entitled. Our efforts in this direction are certain of the approval of all the federate Governments, and We confidently rely on the support of the Reichstag, without distinction of parties. In order to realize these views a Bill for the Insurance of Workmen against industrial accidents will first of all be laid before you, after which a supplementary measure will be submitted providing for a general organization or industrial Sick Relief Insurance. But likewise those who are disabled in consequence of Old Age or Invalidity possess a wellfounded claim to a more ample relief on the part of the State than they have hitherto enjoyed. To devise the fittest ways and means for making such provision, however difficult, is one of the highest obligations of every community based on the moral foundations of Christianity. A more intimate connection with the actual capability of the people, and mode of turning these to account in corporate association, under the patronage and with the aid of State, will, we trust, develop a scheme to solve which the State alone would prove unequal." Accordingly, the workingmen, unfitted for work by sickness, accident, invalidity or old age, is to have a legal right to a due and just provision, in order not to be compelled to rely upon public charity. This end could only be attained by a system of general and compulsory insurance, based on mutuality and selfadministration. (see Table A.) THE SICKNESS INSURANCE (TABLE B). The first of the social political enactments was the Sick Insurance Law of June 15, 1883, which regulated the reform of sick relief in its relation to the insurance against accidents. For these two branches of insurance supplement each other, and quite unlike mere poorlaw relief, which aims only at upholding the existence of the individual — are designed to provide relief to in case of sickness or accident, and to compensate for lost wages during the time of disability to work. On the principles of previous legislation, which trusted chiefly to the good will of interested parties, barely one-half of those who needed it, were in a position to profit by this aid and relief. EXTENT OF THE INSURANCE. This state of things necessarily led to the introduction of compulsory insurance, which in the first place was by law. made obligatory to all workmen employed in mines, quarries, factories or other industrial concerns and to managing officials (with yearly salaries up to 2,000 marks, whose circumstances therefore are nearly alike) in so far as such obligation might be found generally necessary and practicable. In the second place it was permitted to establish a statutory obligation of insurance on the part of the parish (township) for those groups of trades and callings such as so-called home industries (small masters and mechanics working at home), and agricultural laborers - where the above-mentioned necessity is entirely dependent on local circumstances. The foundation and first condition of compulsory insurance is dependency on an employer, so that persons carrying on a business of their own are generally exempted. But the law concedes to all exempted workmen and officials, as well as to servants, the right to participate voluntarily in the benefits of the insurance. The supplemental measure of April 10, 1892 (taking effect on January 1, 1903), designed to bring the sick insurance law into harmony with the other insurance laws (against accident, invalidity and old age), which in the meantime had received the sanction of the government, has widened still farther the range of insured persons. Thus, persons engaged in commercial firms, in the offices of attorneys, notaries, bailiff, sick-clubs, trade associations and insurance institutions are made liable to the legal, and agricultural officials to the statutory obligation of insurance. All those exempted, however, whose yearly earnings do not exceed 2,000 marks, may obtain the statutory privilege of insurance. As regards the mode of carrying out the insurance, the fundamental aim and object of the law is mutual insurance based on self-administration. The insured are grouped in corporate associations whose members belong to the same trade or calling, where the risk of sickness is about alike. Such organization greatly facilitates self-administration, and while it exercises a healthy and moral influence on the members in their intercourse with one another, it makes "simulation" (maligning) more difficult and the indispensable control easier and more effectual. Quite contrary to the insurance against accidents, the sick insurance is restricted to local organization, since here cases of less importance are continually occurring, in which relief, to be efficacious, must be prompt. In consequence of this, the law, without interfering with existing institutions, has authorized beside the voluntary sick clubs, which every one is at liberty to join, the formation of the following obligatory sick associations: 1. The local sick clubs, established by parishes (townships) for branches of trade within their limits; 2. The industrial (factory) sick clubs erected by proprietors of large factories. 3. The builders' sick clubs, which contractors of building are bound to establish; 4. The Guilds' sick clubs, founded according to the National German Trades Regulation law; 5. The miners' sick clubs formed in accordance with the mining laws of the several states of Germany; at last, The subsidiary parish (township) sick insurance, which strictly speaking is not a sick association, but a local institution comprehending all those who are liable to insurance, but who belong neither to a voluntary nor to an obligatory Sick association. Between these organized associations, the right of changing one's membership in case of removal is recognized, i. e., persons newly admitted have neither to wait a certain time until they can obtain the benefits warranted by the law, ror to pay an entrance fee. As the Guilds and the miners' sick clubs are accessible only to certain callings; as the builders' sick clubs are available only for workmen in temporary employment, and as the independent sick relief clubs rest on the voluntary principle, it follows that the law has its main bearing upon the local and the industrial (factory) sick clubs, which embrace the majority of all the associations, and persons insured. The great purpose of the insurance is to secure to the insured an ever certain and sufficient relief, in case of sickness, during at least 26 weeks, (since January 1, 1904, formerly 13 weeks, novel of May 25, 1903.) The minimum relief to which all the insured have a legal claim (see Table B, III), includes: 1. Free medical attendance and medicines from the beginning of the illness, likewise spectacles, trusses, bandages, etc. 2. In case of incapacity for work, from the third day of the illness, for every working day a sick pay, amounting to one-half the daily wages on which the contributions have been based. Or, in special cases: Free admittance to a hospital, together with half the sick pay for the families. Besides this assistance the obligatory insurance grants: 3. Burial money amounting to twenty times the average daily wages, and 4. Sick relief to women during six weeks after confinement. The money value of this assistance is considered equal to the average daily wages upon which the calculation is based. The law, however, allows the double insurance of sick pay up to the full amount of the average daily earnings of the insured. It also authorized the sick clubs to extend the assistance given even to relief for an entire year (instead of 26 weeks), and for women to 12 (instead of 6) weeks after confinement. The daily sick pay may be raised from 50 to 75 per cent, and the burial money from 20 to 40 times the average daily wage. Sick allowances may also be paid for the first three days of the illness, as well as for Sundays and holidays; and finally the relief may be extended even to the other members of the family and to convalescents. The contributions of the insured are limited by the law (independent clubs not included) in the Parish Sick Insurance to per cent of the usual local daily wages of common laborers, and for the rest they must not exceed per cent of the average daily wages of that class of workmen for whom the club has been formed. The law binds the employers, when depositing the contributions of their workmen, to pay themselves a sum equal to one-half the contributions of the employes, so that two-thirds of the whole are furnished by the workmen, so that one-third of the whole are furnished by the employers. The costs of management, which latter, conformably to the principles of self-administration, is mainly placed in the hands of the workmen, aided by the co-operation of the contributing employers, under the supervision of the authorities, are paid by each club for itself. In the parish insurance they fall on the parish (township), and in the industrial and building sick clubs they are borne by the employers. The further extensions of the German National Sick Insurance to agricultural laborers and to servants is not yet realized, but even now there are insured over 10 millions of persons and about 200 millions of marks annually are expended in Germany for sick relief alone (see Table B, I-III, and the Summary, p. 33). THE ACCIDENT INSURANCE (TABLE C.) As with sickness, so in the case of industrial accidents the previous legislation proved inadequate to secure an indemnity to the workmen. The common law granted no compensation in the frequent cases where persons were killed or wounded either by chance or through their own imprudence. If a man suffered by the malice or carelessness of another person, only the immediate author of the disaster-usually a fellow workman or an overseer - could be called to account, but not the employer. Thus the sufferer or his survivors could rarely obtain a fair compensation, for even when a law-court decided in their favor, they generally had to go away with empty hands, in consequence of the poverty of the responsible party. Scarcely one-tenth of all accidents were properly compensated. These evils led to the Liability Law of June 7, 1871, which imposed on the employer a personal responsibility for accidents occurring in his business, and particularly for the negligence of his managers. Under this law the employer is bound to compensate fully the loss arising from the death or bodily injury of a person in the following cases: 1. In railway accident, when he (the employer) cannot show that the injured suffered by his own fault, or by circumstances beyond the employer's control. 2. In other cases (such as may happen in mines, quarries, excavations, or in factories) when the injured, or his part, can show that either the employer er his officials were in fault. Although this law was a step in the right direction, it had not the desired effect. The heavy burden of proof laid on the party seeking redress almost frustrated the beneficent intentions of the measure. The inability of the responsible parties to pay an indemnity often compelled the applicant to fall back upon public charity, and the increasing number of lawsuits seriously embittered the relations between employers and employes. Finally, the limitation of responsibility to cases, in which the blame rested with employers or managers, left uncovered not only cases originating from personal fault or neglect, but like wise that large class of injuries caused by inevitable risks or similar cases (see p. 13). This experience corroborated the conviction expressed in the Emperor's Message of the 17th of November, 1881, that it is the imperative duty of the Christian State, by means of positive enactment to care for the helpless element of the population and to secure to them, when partially or totally disabled in the pursuit of their calling, such a provision as will protect them from being thrown upon public charity. For this reason the principle of redress by private litigation must be abandoned in favor of an insurance based, like the sick relief insurance, on public law, binding employers to care for the employes or their families in case of accidents; for, as such casualities are necessarily incident to the undertaking, the compensation for injuries must be regarded as a part of the cost of production. Considering the serious difficulties to be surmounted, with no precedents to be guided by, legislation could advance only step by step. Accordingly the following accident insurance laws were passed: 1. The so-called "fundamental law" of July 6, 1884, for the Industry (the trades formerly subject to the Liability Law, the handicrafts using machines and some under-ground building). 2. The "extension law" for the great Transport Trades (on land and water), within the country, including the administration of the post, the telegraph, the railway, the army and the navy. 3. The "agricultural law" of May 5, 1886, for Agriculture and Forestry. 4. The "building law" of July 11, 1887, for Navigation. These laws-except the "extension law"-represented each for itself a special legislation adapted to its peculiar province of insurance (industry, agriculture, building, navigation). For the same reasons as formerly in the sickness and invalidity insurance (see p. 5/21) a revision of the accident insurance followed in 1900. Thus, certain rules for organization (partly common to both the accident and the invalidity insurance) were combined on a special (principal) law and the extension law was merged into the fundamental law, but the fusion of all the single laws into one General Act was abandoned as unpractical. Accident insurance as revised (since October 1, 1900) therefore comprises, besides the above mentioned principal law of June 30, 1900, the following separate laws for: 1, Industry; 2, Agriculture and Forestry; 3, Building; 4, Navigation. Special laws have been issued for the accident insurance of prisoners (law of June 31, 1900) as well as officials and soldiers (law of June 18, 1901). The accident insurance law for industry concerned especially the great industries, including the administration of the post, the telegraph, the railway, the army and the navy. The compulsory insurance comprises principally all workmen (irrespective of wages) and inferior managing officials (with yearly salaries up to 3,000 formerly 2,000 marks, under the new law) in domestic and other services ordered by their masters or managers apart from their regular work. Superior managing officials and employers as such remain exempt from compulsory insurance, as under the workmen's insurance laws, but the insurance may be extended, if necessary, by statute to: 1, small masters (with yearly earnings up to 3,000 marks or with only two regular workmen); 2, home industrial (irrespective of the number of their workmen); 3, superior managing officials (with salaries above 3,000 marks), otherwise, the aforesaid small masters are legally entitled to voluntary insurance, which, by statute, may be extended also to the employers with higher yearly earnings finally, it may be allowed by statute, to insure also other persons (belonging to the enterprise, but exposed to its risks). |