ABSTRACT
Social Security is currently showcased by the Instituto Nacional de Securidade Social (National Institute of Social Security), which substitutes the income of the taxpayers when they lose their ability to work and aims to cover contingencies such as sickness pay and benefits related to accidents, types of retirement (due to age, disability), maternity pay
1 INTRODUCTION
Any workplace accident, even those in which the employee is put temporarily out of work just to apply a bandage or go to a hospital, means an economic loss in every aspect. Some of those costs are easily measurable and identifiable, such as in the case of an interruption in the production line, the destruction of inputs and materials, replacement or reparation of damaged equipment, costs of first aid and medical assistance, etc. There are also nonquantifiable costs, which beyond not being easy to identify in total, become hard to be measured when they are. How to quantify, as an example: the exact compromise to a worker’s health and physical integrity, the compromise to their family income due to financial loss, the overload of responsibilities placed upon their other family members, the psychological effects that may eventually hinder the wounded worker’s general activities and even his or her self-esteem?.
