COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 209, 3 September 1932, Page 6

COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

BASIS FOR COAL MINERS. WHEN TRADE CONDITIONS VARY. ARBITRATION COURT'S DECISION. Arbitration Court decisions affecting the basis of compensation calculation, and differentiating between varying conditions of trade in the mining industry, have been issued by Mr. Justice Frazer. The case of Alexander Shewan, an employee of the Westport-Stockton Coal Company, Ltd., is considered to be of such importance that the Court has expressed a desire to state a case for the Court of Appeal, in view of the frequency with which flaees of a similar type have to be dealt with. His Honor stated that the effect of a number of judgments is that a worker who has a standard week of five, five and a half, or six days is to receive compensation based on his earnings for a full week's work, although he has lost time through wet weather, illnese, breakdowns of machinery and other causes. During the prevailing depression coal miners in particular have been working so irregularly that it has been suggested that the standard week has, in fact, ceased to exist. In many cases, to award compensation to an injured worker on the basis of a. full week's wages would result in receiving more than he would have earned had he been working. The mine owners hold that compensation should be based on actual earnings, while the unions consider that the old rule should apply, notwithstanding the altered conditions of trade. In Shewan'a case, the Court held that during the 12 months immediately preceding the accident the mine was working only to cope with current orders. It is held that where the conditions of employment are such that the worker may expect to work each day unless some unforeseen occurrence prevented him, he is still to be paid compensation on the full week wage basis. Where, however, it is definitely understood that the work is consistently irregular, his average weekly earnings for compensation are to be computed as follows: Multiply the daily earnings by the number of days on which the mine worked, plus the days lost through holidays, etc., and divide the result by the number of weeks during which the mine worked. The result in Shewan's case was £4 2/1.

In the case of Arthur Robinson, of Pukemiro, coal miner, against Pukemiro Collieries, Limited, the Court held that there was no evidence to show that the normal or standard week had been abrogated as in Shewan's case, and that therefore the old rule applied. The average weekly earnings were to be ascertained by multiplying his average daily earnings by the number of shifts in a normal full week. Judgment was for Robinson for the f 1 0/6 he claimed ae due and £7 7/ costs.