Valebond

Now, your employer has most benevolently offered to cover this surgery...

— Medimian healer

Valebond is a ritual of healthcare practiced within the Medimian Empire that has been explicitly enshrined in law as a protected rite. It, in essence, is a binding contract between employer and employees that dictates that so long as the employer retains their employees, they shall be responsible for providing adequate healthcare to their staff.

Before Formalities by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

The working class are generally expected to follow a simple code of conduct whilst valebonded. They are to maintain reasonable behaviour and not breach any of Medimia's laws. Drunken behaviour is tolerated to an extent, but causing public disturbances is cause for the valebond to be called into question.
Their work must remain of reasonable standard. Producing lackluster work is permitted with the agreement of healers, as one cannot be expected to work at full capacity when unwell, but healthy workers are to put in the effort for the job that has invested in them.
They must communicate any major changes to their employer within a reasonable timeframe - for instance, if they fall pregnant, their employer must know so that their duties may be altered.
In turn, the care provided by employers is expected to be better than that which the workers could have accessed or performed themselves, meaning an improvement over basic home remedies.

Access to at least one cleric or priest with healing magic is vital for the more serious injuries; many companies and guilds have arrangements with the Empire's church branch to ensure this access remains constant, even if the clerics themselves need to travel frequently. Apothecaries and alchemists are either trained by each company or are contracted to them to provide whatever medicines, poultices, and the like are needed. Mundane healers that may handle everyday concerns are treated much the same.
The majority of Medimian companies offering valebonding cover the healthcare for a worker and their family, meaning the worker, their parents (if not of working age), their spouse, and their children. They do not cover siblings or other, more distant relations. Workers that become unable to work whilst valebonded due to illness, injury, or age are still covered under the valebond until they pass away, though it is strongly encouraged for them to seek state care at this point or for their children to join the company that has shown them such loyalty.

History

Road to Hell should've been paved with better intentions than this.

— disgusted worker

The tradition began in the north of the Empire, where icy winters would often cause illness and injury among industrial workers. Many could not afford to buy potions or take time away from work on the sums they received from their work, and thus, they suffered. As their condition worsened, their quality of work slipped. As the weather grew nastier, existing injuries would cause new ones - a lame hand causing failures in pulling a stopping cord, for instance, or a coughing fit causing a loss of balance into an unsafe area.

Amputations or even death often followed these worse injuries.
One enterprising mill owner, Salvus Aggradius Domenis, began the tradition of valebonding through his concern for his people. After attending the funeral of a worker's young child who had been unable to recover from a winter chill, he swore to change things for his staff.
He offered them a deal: if they would swear to work for him and him alone, if they would follow some general rules on behaviour, and if they would not bring significant shame on his company outside of their usual working hours, then he would draw on all of his trade contracts to bring healers and healthcare to them.
They would not need to pay even a copper; he would ensure they and their families received proper care. The idea caught on with others of his pedigree as he began to reach out about the concept, and soon enough, swathes of Medimia's working class were valebonded to their employers.

Lumber Mill by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

When the tradition began, it was a wonderful bond that demonstrated the care an employer could have for their staff. Healers are a rarity in most parts of the world, and potions and poultices only get more expensive the further away one gets from large population centres. Being valebonded encouraged employers to work to improve healthcare throughout Medimia without the involvement of the monarchy or the Rubies Regnant, and initially saw a sharp uptick in health outcomes through the nation.
Unfortunately, corruption raised its ugly head with haste.

Signed in Crimson by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

These days, to be valebonded is to sell one's health. As wealthy merchants, landlords, mill owners, and the like encouraged healthcare to improve around the country, they soon found it easiest to hire, train, and essentially own the healers and alchemists they wished to use. Apothecary skills diminished as the valebonded relied further on their employers to take care of them, and gradually, independent healing became more scarce than it had been originally.
Now, should a valebonded anger the wealthy landlords and employers, they may not only be fired from their role, but also banned from accessing resources owned by those employers. Like the only healthcare available to them.
For those with families in dangerous situations or dealing with long-term illness, this feels like an utter travesty. They have no manner of fighting back against this treatment, and indeed, doing so is likely to see them arrested and imprisoned by the Empire for the crime of attempting to live.

For the poor souls left bereft of help, there are four options: grovel for their work back, attempt to find another employer, join the Medimian army - or die.

Execution

Like everything in this fucking country, it's contracts.

— annoyed Medimian

To enter into a valebond is to sign a blood contract. This is standard practice within the Empire's reaches, but is rarely needed for the working class; a valebonding may very well be one of the few times the lower classes encounter blood contracts. The gravity of what they are doing is not lost on them, for these contracts are generally entered into within the nearest church.

Under the watchful eye of diabolist priests, the contract's signing can feel like a less-romantic marriage. Their presence is a necessary protective mechanism for both sides, in case either side intends to attempt to sneak additional clauses into the contract, or to invalidate existing ones.
The contracts are sent to the capital of Coruscia usually, where they are stored in the immense vaults that contain all of the Empire's contracts. Should a contract need to be broken, either by request or by breach of terms, then it shall be sent for by the same church that saw it signed. Broken contracts are usually burned in front of the signers, where possible.
Intriguingly, the consequences for a broken contract differ between parties.
The consequence for workers not maintaining their side of the contract is to lose their jobs and healthcare. Should an employer fail in their duty, the breach will be reported by the church to Medimia as a breach of care and contract.

A Contract Secured by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Depending on the severity of the breach, the punishment may be anywhere from an order to compensate the worker with a percentage of that year's earnings to execution for the most extreme breaches. The risk to employers is great, but naturally, corruption may interfere here too - they may get away with minor breaches with little to no compensation at all for the worker.

Valebond Contract by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Related Organizations

• Medimian Empire

I simply do not understand why we would ever fall into Aletheia's trap of providing care for those who do nothing! Why should we subsidise the useless? They can join the valebonded, or should they be incapable, they may always sell themselves!

— capitalist

International Opinion

Though the war has slowed down the release of information from Medimia and very few of the valebonded will ever leave their home nation, the strange tradition has existed for long enough that Medimia's neighbours are all well aware of it.
The Aletheian Empire has explicitly outlawed similar contracts after seeing the way it was so easily corrupted. Employers wishing to offer healthcare must go through a government-run proxy that ensures fairness.
Instead of valebonding, the Aletheian Empire offers free or discounted healing services at many churches throughout the nation, and will aid injured or sick citizens if made aware of them.
Other nations, like the Vostene Republic and the puppet-state of Ordan, have no laws outright preventing it as of 5627 EA, but have not attempted to replicate the rite in their own manner.
This is very likely because there are few nations with the level of infrastructure to support this level of healthcare; the two empires may be the only two consistently able to offer this service. Medimia manages it through their conscriptions and control.
Aletheia would, if they wished, be able to leverage their wide network of military medical staff to support a greater area, but it would be at great cost to their armies, and their alternative works well enough.
Hell is known to be greatly amused by the entire endeavour; some of the devil allies retained by Medimia's most powerful have taken great inspiration from the rite.

Mortals! You don't even need to torment them yourselves. Give them some ideas and they go and do the most entertaining things.

— a devil

Contracts of Coruscia by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

I genuinely do not understand why the commonfolk rile against the contracts that they chose to enter.
We're not bloody well forcing them to do it, and the army offers far better care if they dislike working so much!
By the Star, these young folk will chase every excuse to avoid working hard.

— oblivious merchant