'For the workers but without the workers': industrial accident management under the Franco dictatorship (1939-1966)
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'For the workers but without the workers': industrial accident management under the Franco dictatorship (1939-1966)Date
2020Citation
Vilar-Rodríguez, M., & Pons-Pons, J. (2020). ‘For the workers but without the workers’: industrial accident management under the Franco dictatorship (1939-1966). Labor History, 61(5–6), 503–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2020.1836139
Abstract
[Abstract]: In the first decades of this century, Spain still has a high industrial accident rate compared
with other Western European countries. Within the framework of the most recent
historiographical theses, this paper analyses the historical roots of this situation, focusing
on the institutions that historically managed industrial accident insurance coverage,
especially during the first decades of the Franco Dictatorship (1939-1966). This study
examines how Francoist social policy favoured employers by prolonging the control of
this insurance in the hands of private institutions, insurance companies and, above all,
employers’ industrial accident mutuals, which excluded worker participation in its
management and promoted this social coverage as a business. Archival and statistical
documentation makes it possible to demonstrate that entities such as the employers’
industrial accident mutuals managed a substantial volume of the premiums paid by
employers, which brought them significant profits through the refund of part of these
premiums in the form of rebates. This was possible because at the same time they destined
no or negligible funding to prevention and rehabilitation of workers. Ultimately,
employers’ management of this insurance allowed them to meet this obligation cheaply,
while maintaining a historically high accident rate in Spain and hindered the development
of a culture of prevention of occupational risks.
Keywords
Industrial accidents
Employers´ mutuals
Social risks
Europe
Spain
Francoism
Twentieth century
Employers´ mutuals
Social risks
Europe
Spain
Francoism
Twentieth century
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Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0
ISSN
0023-656X