Occupational diseases: a recognition system that “discourages” victims, according to the Court of Auditors

For just over a century, the law has provided specific compensation to workers who fall ill as a result of their professional activity. The mechanisms in place remain poorly understood and highly complex, which contributes to limiting their scope. This is what the Court of Auditors demonstrates in a report released Friday, October 3, one of the purposes of which is to shed light on an important issue for society but one that is rarely discussed in public debate.

In 1919, France established a system for recognizing occupational diseases that allowed those affected to be better covered than for an "ordinary" illness, i.e. one unrelated to the job performed. It was initially constructed in the form of "tables" listing conditions: these are presumed to have been caused by the position held, if certain conditions are met (performance of specific tasks, maximum time between the end of exposure to the risk and the date on which the symptoms are noted by a doctor, etc.). A complementary procedure was added in 1993 for pathologies that are not listed in any of the tables in question: in this case, regional committees for the recognition of occupational diseases decide whether the long-term condition that has occurred should be attributed to work.

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