Theoretically employment injury benefit schemes has three backgrounds. The first is the social compromise theory. Employees are compensated by EII on the condition that they give up litigations whereas employers are required to pay EII benefits to employees who suffer from industrial injuries or diseases regardless of their negligence. The payment of EII benefits excludes employers from the process of civil litigation. The second is the least social cost theory. The non-fault liability under EII is much more efficient in terms of time and cost than the judicial system which focuses on who is responsible for the accidents. The third is the occupational risk theory. In a broad sense, industrial accidents are inevitable under a capitalist system and employees should be compensated regardless of who bears the responsibility. Thus, the expenditure for industrial accidents should be considered as a part of production cost.

The types of employment injury and occupational diseases schemes might be categorized into social insurance type, employer liability system, mandatory private insurance, social assistance and universal type.

Article 71 of the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) states that “the costs of the benefits (…) and administration (…) shall be borne collectively by way of insurance contributions or taxation or both”. Therefore, direct employer liability for the cost of benefits would not be in conformity with ILO Conventions. In this context, social insurance type scheme such as employment injury insurance has to be implemented. In addition, considering types of employment injury scheme by region, the predominance of social insurance scheme type is found.

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