Trends in employee health service : Margaret F. McKiever, editor.

  • United States. Public Health Service. Division of Occupational Health
Date:
1965]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Trends in employee health service : Margaret F. McKiever, editor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1946 1948 1949 California was the second State to enact a law for cash sickness benefits for nonoccupational illness and injury to workers cov- ered by the State unemployment insurance law. Payments began in December 1946. Congress enacted Public Law 658, the Federal Employees Health Service Act, which authorized Federal] departments and agencies to provide their employees with health-service pro- grams limited to treatment of on-the-job illness, preemployment examinations, and preventive health programs. The Academy of Occupational Medicine was founded by phy- siclans devoting full time to the teaching or practice of occu- pational medicine. The United Mine Workers of America set up the first big health-welfare fund in industry in the United States. The fund was financed by the coal operators with per-ton payments, and the first medical services under the program were given to paraplegic employees. National Labor Relations Board ruled that pension, health, and welfare plans were within the scope of collective bargaining. These rulings were sustained by the action of the higher courts in 1949, Workmen’s compensation legislation became nationwide with Mississippi’s enactment of such a law. New Jersey was the third State to enact a law for cash sickness benefits for nonoccupational illness and injury to workers covered by the State unemployment insurance law. Payments began in January 1949. The Federal Government’s first national conference on indus- trial safety met in Washington, D.C. First major study in the United States of the effects of air pollution on health was made by U.S. Public Health Service in Donora, Pa. (Public Health Bulletin No. 306). New York was the fourth State to enact a law for cash sickness benefits for nonoccupational illness and injury to employed workers. Payments began in July 1950. Presidential Board of Inquiry into the labor dispute in the basic steel industry concluded that social insurance and pensions should be considered a part of normal business costs to take care of temporary and permanent depreciation in the human “machine.”