Compensation For Tom Stockings

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30144, 30 May 1963, Page 2

Compensation For Tom Stockings

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SYDNEY. May 29. The New South Wales Government Insurance Office is threatened with an avalanche of claims by women public servants for torn and laddered stockings. The threat arises from a decision that the office made on a claim by a woman public service employee. The decision makes the office liable under the Workers’ Compensation Act /to pay claims by any of the State's 24,000 women public servants who accidentally tear or ladder their stockings on the job. The woman in the case on which the office made its decision tore her stocking while extracting a card from a trolley in the Public Trust Office.

The office agreed to pay the compensation after the Public Service Association threatened legal action. The compensation officer of

the State Labour Council, Mr W. C. Ritchies, said that under the Workers’ Compensation Act, a worker who suffered damage to clothes could claim the cost of repairs or replacement. Mr Ritchie said the office did not want any publicity on its decision because it feared it would be ' faced with thousands of similar claims. The Public Service Association has published the decision in its journal, “Red Tape.”