EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1362, 28 May 1895, Page 5

EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY.

The following circular has been addressed by the Inspector of Factories to certain employers in Dunedin :--- I notice that you exhibit in your factory a circular addressed to your employes informing them that in consequence of the Employers' Liability Acts you have found it necessary to protect yourselves against any claims which may be made under those Acts, and that you insist upon your employes contributingin the £ of their wages as their share of such insurance. In my opinion your threat to make deductions from wages, as indicated in your circular, points to an intended breach of the Truck Act, 1891, and the Workmen's Wages Act, 1893, and I think it only fair to intimate to you that a prosecution will follow if such deductions are made. Whilst you may possibly be able to effect an insurance on behalf of your own employes for your own protection against losses by accident, you must do so at your own cost, as you cannot, in my opinion, insure yourselves against the consequences of negligence for which the Legislature has made you liable, and debit your employes with a weekly sum to recoup yourself the cost of so doing, and if you attempt to do so after this notice it will be regarded as a wilful breach of the Acts above quoted.