This research explores the experiences of Chinese seafarers and bereaved families in the process of claiming compensation following workplace accidents. For a long time, issues regarding seafarers’ rights in such cases have failed to attract substantial public attention. International and Chinese studies indicate that seafarers may suffer higher risks of work-related injuries compared with land-based workers. Studies conducted in Australia, Canada and the United States show that claimants under workers’ compensation system may suffer extra psychological harm when claiming damages. However, there is little attention, in academic discourse, paid to the struggles of Chinese seafarers and/or bereaved families in the processes of claiming compensation following work-related casualties. This research aims to examine the procedures for compensation claims and to explore individual experiences of the claim process to determine whether Chinese seafarers suffer additional harm during claim processes. Two major qualitative research methods, documentary analysis and semi-structured interview, are applied in this research. The findings based on an analysis of legal claims process documents and records and interview data with the key informants, including claim handlers in shipping companies, maritime lawyers and maritime court judges in China, suggest that the compensation standards for occupational casualties of seafarers are chaotic and the current social welfare system does not provide effective assistance for the victims. The research results, therefore, show that Chinese seafarers and their families are most likely to suffer additional harm in the process, including intensive psychological pressures caused by the lack of procedural transparency and mental trauma resulting from claim suppression by their companies. Moreover, when resorting to public institutions, including labour administration and judicial authorities, Chinese seafarers are unlikely to receive timely and sufficient remedies.

Dans le cadre professionnel, les maladies professionnelles telles que les troubles musculo-squelettiques et les maladies psychiques constituent la première cause d'entrée dans le régime d'invalidité en France. Leur singularisme se situe dans leur étiologie complexe qui échappe au système d'indemnisation. Ces maladies dont le travail est une cause mais ne peut être avec certitude la cause ne sont quasiment pas prises en charge.Leur réparation se fonde encore principalement sur une loi compromissoire entre patronat et salariés centenaire, sur laquelle se sont empilés des mécanismes réparatoires législatifs et jurisprudentiels, et leur prévention nécessiterait un bouleversement dans le rapport au travail. Dans la fonction publique, cette mauvaise prise en charge n'est pas sans créer des disparités entre agents, selon leur régime statutaire ou la reconnaissance effective de la maladie au service.Le système de réparation actuel qui laisse à la charge de la sécurité sociale des maladies pourtant liées au travail ne peut perdurer. Cependant de nouvelles modalités d'indemnisation ne sont possibles que si le coût est supportable. Or l'inexistence de chiffres permettant d'estimer le nombre de maladies reconnues ou sous-déclarées et de ce fait la part des maladies multifactorielles, rend l'estimation de ce coût impossible.La base de données (année 2008) qui a été constituée dans ce travail permet d'évaluer le nombre d'agents touchés par une maladie multifactorielle et laisse à penser que seule une réparation partielle assortie d'une prévention incitative est susceptible de prendre en charge de manière acceptable et pérenne les maladies multifactorielles dans la fonction publique. / In the working environment, multifactorial disorders such as musculoskeletal and mental disorders are the main cause of officially recognized disability in France. Their particularity lies in their complex etiology, which makes claims for compensation difficult. They can be caused in part by working conditions, but other factors are involved, with no single clearly identifiable cause. Their compensation mechanisms are mainly based on hundred-year-old employment arbitration law, to which other legislative and jurisprudential compensation mechanisms have been added. These disorders can only be prevented by a complex shift in attitudes to work and in the perception of proper working conditions. For civil servants, the current system causes disparities between agents, due to differences in their legal status and recognition of the disorder in each department.Under the current system of compensation, the cost of these work-related disorders is covered by social security, which is untenable, but any new form of compensation must be cost-efficient. However, as there are no figures available to estimate the number of recognised occupational disorders and hence the proportion of multifactorial diseases, it is not possible to estimate their cost. From the data collected in this study for the year 2008 it is possible to calculate the number of agents affected by multifactorial diseases. The results indicate that the only long-term and appropriate way to deal with this problem in the civil service is through partial compensation combined with incentives to prevent these disorders.

En France, le régime général de sécurité sociale est principalement financé par des cotisations à la charge des employeurs et des salariés. Leur paiement repose sur un système déclaratif permettant, en contrepartie, aux Urssaf d'effectuer un contrôle de l'exactitude et de l'exhaustivité des déclarations des cotisants. L'efficience du recouvrement est essentielle au maintien du mécanisme d'assurance sociale établi. Il importe de concilier les nécessités du financement du régime général de sécurité sociale avec les droits des cotisants. Ces derniers doivent bénéficier, lors du contrôle, des garanties du principe de la contradiction, à savoir d'un droit à l'information et à la discussion avant qu'une décision soit prise à leur encontre. Plus généralement, en dehors du cadre précis des opérations de vérification, le droit positif s'attache à améliorer la sécurité juridique du cotisant et l'égalité devant les charges publiques. La construction du droit des cotisants se caractérise par la recherche d'un équilibre entre les deux impératifs qui s'avèrent parfois incompatibles. Aussi, elle est longue et prudente et se distingue parfois par l'inobservation partielle et ponctuelle des principes établis. Appréhendant la situation actuelle, cette étude formule également plusieurs propositions d'amélioration du droit des cotisants en gardant à l'esprit l'impératif financement de la sécurité sociale. / In France, the general French social security scheme is mainly financed by contributions paid by employers and employees. Their payment is based on a declarative system which allows the social security authorities (Urssaf) to check the accuracy and completeness of the statements made by the contributors. The efficiency of the collection is essential to the preservation of the established mechanism of social insurance. It is important to reconcile the requirements of the financing of the general social security system with the rights of contributors. They have to benefit, during the control, from the guarantees of the adversarial principle, that is a right to be informed and a right to discuss before any decision is taken against them. More generally, outside the specific scope of the verification processes, the French positive law aims to improve the legal security of the contributors and the equality in relation to public burdens. The construction of the rights of the contributors is characterized by the search for a balance between these two imperatives which turn out sometimes incompatible. Also, it is long and careful and sometimes distinguished by the partial and ad-hoc non-compliance with the established principles. Taking into account the current situation, this study also formulates several proposals of improvement of the rights of the contributors keeping in mind the imperative of the financing of the French social security scheme.