Whenworking, if you get hurt you get workers' compensation benefits which means, your employer pays you and then you agree not to take them to court and sue their company. Germany was the first country to have compensation to workers who got hurt from an accident. In America the employees had to sue the company for their compensation for injuries and this was unfair to the employees, the employer wasn't found at fault very often but the juries started to see the employees side and began to reward them more. Many companies started taking out the expensive employer's liability insurance. Some people got attracted to the European workmen's compensation. In the early 1900's a few states passed workmen's compensation laws. These people either failed to survive court tests or they were very limited in scope. Maryland was the first state to pass a law that provided accident compensation and it didn't matter who was at fault. The law was declared unconstitutional in 1904 because of the supreme court. Crystal Eastman's Work Accidents and the law helped workmen's compensation. They won support from businesses and labor. This lead to be one of the "fundamental justifications for adopting workmen's compensation. Labor finally was swayed strongly enough to srop the objections and support workermen's compensation. Labor leaders didn't want to give the right of their members to sue employers when they get hurt or something. In 1909 the president of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, led the Federation from opposition to support.
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