Benefit surcharges: a look at their function

Abstract

This article deals with the legal procedure regarding benefit surcharges arising from corporate responsibility for non-compliance with preventive regulations.
This analysis rethinks and updates some of the classic debates surrounding this surcharge which is designed as a complement to social security benefits, uninsurable and under the responsibility of the offending employer.
There is repeated debate about the nature of the benefit surcharge and the problems posed by its legal system, which have led some to postulate its disappearance, but in this paper we try to find a contemporary answer which takes into account the legal, and consequently social function, performed by benefit surcharges. Here we look upon it as an institution intended not to penalize the employer or to compensate the injured party, although both effects may occur, but rather a method to ensure compliance with the preventive regulations and to thus encourage the fight against occupational hazards.
This function is what should give a sense of logic to the legal system of the surcharge and is thus defended in this paper.