Commission To Study Overseas

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31238, 9 December 1966, Page 3

Commission To Study Overseas

(New Zealand Press Association* WELLINGTON, December 8. The three-man Royal Commission into workers’ compensation will study workers’ compensation and rehabilitation in Europe and North America early next year.

Mr Justice Woodhouse (chairman), Mr H. L. Bockett, a former Secretary of Labour, and Mr G. A. Parsons, a Wellington public accountant, are expected to leave early in February and will probably return in April. Final Hearing At this year’s final hearing yesterday, Mr Justice Woodhouse summarised some of the questions raised by almost two months of submissions in various centres. Should a legal tribunal or some other tribunal or board assess the extent to which a workman is incapacitated? Should the doctors who make the assessment be pri-

vate doctors or should they be part of an organisation doing that sort of work all the time? Money Assessments If it is to be a legal tribunal should it be in the structure of ordinary courts, the Compensation Court or some new ad hoc body? Should a judge alone or a jury of some other body make actual money assessments of damages and compensation? His Honour said unions, insurers and employers should consider the ceiling for weekly compensation payments (now £ll 17s 6d) and the duration of the payments (now limited to six years).