Employers’ management of compulsory industrial accident insurance during the Franco regime (1940-1975)

Abstract

During the period prior to the Civil War, industrial accident mutuals had been created by employers interested in participating in the industrial accident insurance business and in controlling the medical care of their injured workers. In the first stage of the Franco regime, industrial accident insurance remained within the sphere of private insurance. During this period employers’ mutuals had to continue competing with commercial insurance companies which also operated in this branch. With the passage of the law of social security, it appeared that the state was going to create
a unified social security which would include industrial accident insurance. in fact, when the law came into effect in 1966, commercial insurance companies were excluded. However, employers’ interests and their influence in governement led to mutual societies continuing to administer this insurance, the management of which allowed employers to maintain control over injured employees. In exchange, the state initiated a limited supervision of their patrimony, their reserves and the investment of their profits.