Legal provisions on workplace accidents and occupational diseases

Abstract

Historically speaking, the legal provisions governing workplace accidents and occupational diseases are of recent origin, both nationally and internationally. It is impossible to imagine that in primitive times, at the dawn of humanity, there could have been legal rules applicable to this area, given that human labor was not subject to any legal regulation at that time.

We find the same situation in the era of slavery, where workers were not recognized as having any rights and were not subject to any protection, since it was the slave who performed the work and was considered a working tool of the slave owner, who could therefore subject him to the most ruthless working conditions and even dispose of his life.

In the era of feudalism or serfdom, although workers, i.e., serfs, already enjoyed a certain degree of freedom, there were no regulations applicable to labor relations, much less relating to the subject at hand. It is only in relatively recent times, in historical terms, that laws on the subject began to emerge, starting with the industrial revolution in the 17th century, which led to a proliferation of labor relations, forcing the establishment of legal provisions aimed at recognizing workers' rights.

In the particular case of the Dominican Republic, the first legal provisions applicable to labor relations emerged at the beginning of the last century, and the Dominican Republic's labor code came into force for the first time in 1951, just 55 years ago.

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