ABSTRACT:

Workmen’s Compensation is a social security scheme whereby employees who suffer disability or die from injuries sustained or disease contracted as a consequence of accidents arising out of and in the course of their employments are compensated. The problem of compensation arises when all reasonable measures taken to prevent accidents fail and a workman suffers injury during course of his services to his employer.  In such a case, his possible source of compensation for the loss in his earning power and for pain and sufferings to his body is damages in a legal action against those liable to him under the common law and under the Employees’ Compensation Act. The workman has a choice either to claim for compensation under the Employees’ Compensation Act or to institute an action for damages at common law, but he cannot obtain both. This article takes an incursion into the contractual duties of employers and employees with emphasis on liability for care, analyses the provisions of the Employees’ Compensation Act, and the remedies at common law, which provide succour for workmen that sustain injuries, or death in the course of employment.