OHS 208 Study Guide - Final Guide: Reasonable Person, Trial Division, Caveat Emptor

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Occupational Health
• Course: OHS 208
• Professor: Peter Strahlendorf

Document Summary

Unit 2: historical aspects of common law of ohs. It was the inability of the common law to compensate injured workers and their families which led to the imposition of state-run, no-fault insurance systems in many jurisdictions at the beginning of the 20th century. While few workers are allowed to sue (workers" compensation legislation prohibits such lawsuits), we see that the common law lives on in such rare cases. Indeed, the common law of ohs has lived on in the u. k. , where workers" compensation reform left the option open for workers to sue. Many of the defences an employer could deploy against a worker in the 19th century have disappeared or have been modified. This is also called the assumption of risk rule . If a worker knows of the hazards of the job and continues working with those hazards, it was said that the worker had assumed the risks of the job: doctrine of common employment.