ABSTRACT
By the end of 1898, the Direction-Generale des Manufactures d'Etat was trying to cap any further financial concessions for medical reasons. Spokesmen told Federation representatives that medical benefits were already quite generous: three months of benefits at one franc sixty centimes per day for men and one franc ten centimes per day for women in the departement of the Seine, slightly less in the provinces. If a worker required another three months of treatment, he or she was eligible for 50% or more of average wages. In the following 12 month period the worker was again eligible for six months of payments. 1 Administration spokesmen kept stressing that their terms were much more generous than those of the workers' compensation law of April 9, 1898: the Ministry of Finances paid benefits from the first day of sickleave, whereas the workers' compensation law provided for payments only from the fifth day. Nonplussed, the Federation kept asking for, and in some cases receiving, sick pay equal to 100% of wages plus free medicine.
