COMPENSATION PAY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 272, 13 August 1938, Page 10

COMPENSATION PAY

Comment By Employers’

Federation

DELAY IN SETTLING CASES

statement made by the Minister of Labour, lion. 11. T. Armstrong, when referring on August 10 to workers’ compensation, was commented upon yesterday by the New Zealand Employers’ Federation. Mr. Armstrong said cases had been reported to him where employers had defied the law and had stopped payment of compensation contrary to the letter of the amendment of the Workers’ Compensation Act, 1937. “There is something to be said on the other side, particularly in cases where there is a permanent partial disablement,” ■ stated the federation “Such cases at some tune invariably reach a point where a lump sum sett lenient should lie negotiated. Where the Court of Arbitration is readily accessible no particular difficulty arises because in the event of an agreement between the parties not being possible the matter can quickly be decided by the court, but in many recent cases the Court of Arbitration has not been m a particular place for 12 months, and cases which have reached the stage when a lamp sum settlement o£ the employer’s liability should be made have proved exceedingly difficult to settle. “The inj tired worker has refused to accept all offers of a reasonable sum calculated in accordance with general practice and recorded decisions of the Court of Arbitration, and so. the employer has been forced to continue paying out weekly compensation for a long period an'd at the end of such period has had to pay as well the lump sum which would have been decided at the time when the case first became ripe for such settlement. “No one would quarrel with. Mr. Armstrong’s avowed intention to impose a penalty where an employer improperly stops payment of compensation, but on the other hand some provision is necessary to enable a settlement of a case to be made when it is ripe for settlement, and the ’employer should not l>e called upon to go on paying weekly compensation for indefinite periods in such cases.”