Organized Labor has played an important role in the development of the safety movement in the United States of America. From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in this country, organized labor has fought for safer working conditions and appropriate compensation for workers injured at their working places. Furthermore, they over turn Anti-labor laws to safety in workplace. These laws were the fellow servant rule, contributory negligence, and assumption of risk.
The fellow servant rule is a common-law that the employer is not liable to an employee for injuries caused by fellow employee negligence. According to Goetsch, D. L. (2011), an injured employee had to bring a cause for action against the fellow employee causing the injury, not the employer.
The doctrine of contributory negligence is a law that if a person was injured due to his/her own negligence contributed to the accident, the injured party would not be entitled to collect any damages (money) from another party who supposedly caused the accident.
Assumption of risk concept is the act of contracting to take over the risk and accepting the danger involve and the damaged with agreement to undertake risk.
The fellow servant rule, the doctrine of contributory negligence and the assumption of risk concept has contributed to organized labor in the safety movement, because organized labor has played a crucial role in the development of the safety movement in the United States. According to Micheal Speegle ( 2013) many of the earliest developments in the safety movement were the result of long and hard-fought battles by organized labor. From the Industrial Revolution time, organized labor has fought for safer working conditions and appropriate compensation for workers injured on the job.
Reference
Goetsch, D. L. (2011). Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers. 7th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Micheal Speegle (2013) Safety Health And Environmental...