Mountain Clubs Seek Compensation Right

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 17

Mountain Clubs Seek Compensation Right

Concern at the lack of legislation to provide for compensation for volunteers who suffer death or serious injury while working on behalf of the Police Department in search and rescue activities is expressed in a recent bulletin published by the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand.

In submissions made to the Royal Commission on Compensation the federation’s executive asked that special consideration be given to members of mountain clubs who took part in search and rescue operations as they had no status as "workers” in terms of the legislation which provides for compensation of workers injured in the course of their employment. “These mountain club members are acting at the request of the Police department. If they were not available to perform the specialist operations alloted to them, and the department had to use exclusively its own staff (presuming this to be a possibility, Which it is not), the department would be liable for payment of compensation for any members of the force who were killed while engaged on these duties,” the article says. “As matters stand at the moment the Police Department has assumed a certain amount of responsibility for the compensation of injured members of search and rescue parties, or the compensation of relatives of those killed during such operations. “While this compensation is on the same scale as that provided for in the act. it is in the nature of an ex-gratia payment, made under special authority, and our federation would be better satisfied to see this changed to a payment made as of right under some statutory obligation.” Scale Of Payments The article said the federation was also deeply concerned at the scale of payments. The present rate of $23.75 a week fell far short of the earnings of almost any male worker. “This is the basis on which payments are made and is the reason for the unsatisfactory rate of payment which now applies in the event of death or serious injury to mountain club members engaged in a difficult and hazardous public duty. “One outstanding difference between the position of a man engaged in his usual occupation and i member of a search

and rescue team is that the search and rescue personnel accept a certain amount of physical injury or damage as being inevitable, and would be unlikely to seek compensation except in cases of severe injury which resulted in death or serious disablement. “While participation in search and rescue operations by mountain club members is voluntary, there is a general feeling among them that, by reason of their special skills and their extensive local knowledge of particular areas, they are under an obligation to offer their services in this work. The mountain clubs work in close co-operation with the police at all times, and maintain lists of names of their members who are available to form search and rescue parties when called on by the police. Danger “Part Of Job”

“In the course of such work the mountain club members expose themselves to con-

siderable hardship and danger as a part of the job which they have been asked to do. It is as a result of their competence that searchers themselves seldom meet with serious accidents in the course of their operations, but the hazards are usually there. "Searches often occur during poor weather conditions, and the searchers are strongly influenced by the need to act quickly to save lives. For this reasons, although they are prudent and experienced, they traverse areas and cross rivers in conditions which they would not contemplate in normal circumstances. Inevitably this takes its toll sooner or later.” More Searches

The incidence of search and rescue operations carried out under the control and authority of the police increased by 63 per cent for the year ended March 31, 1967, compared with the previous year, according to the department’s annual report. There were 490 operations, 270 of them by police using police resources only, and 220 using expert volunteer or service assistance.

The 295 incidents which occurred in the 1965-66 year represented a 45 per cent increase on the previous year. The report expresses appreciation for the assistance rendered by volunteer organisations, and records with regret the death of Mr John Harrison, of Christchurch, and Mr Morris Brehaut, of Timaru, while engaged on search and rescue operations. “Many thousands of man days, much of it highly skilled, were given to search and rescue activity by the men and women concerned,” the report says.