LIABILITY FOR ACCIDENTS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 57, 8 March 1923, Page 11

LIABILITY FOR ACCIDENTS

During the recent conference of the Master Painters' Federation, a question arose regarding liability in the event of accidents. The position, states an authority, is governed by the Workers' Compensation Act of 1922, the first schedule of which sets out a number of hazardous occupations. A man injured in the course of any of the following occupations would be entitled to compensation from the person who employed him : — Mining,' quarrying, excavation, the cutting of standing timber and scrub, cleaving land of stumps and logs, erection or demolition of any building or structure, manufacture or use of any explosive, the charge or use of any machinery in motion and driven by steam or ■ other mechanical power, the driving of any vehicle drawn or propelled by horsepower or mechanical power, domestic service in which the employment or engagement is for a period of not less than three days, any occupation in which a worker incurs a risk of falling any distance exceeding 12 feet, if the injury or death of the worker results from such a fall. Employers generally are liable to pay compensation when workmen are injured in the course of their duties, but in the event of an employer or contractor being financially , incapable of meeting a claim, provision is contained in the Act for an injured worker to have recourse against., the principal. If private people directly employ workirjen or tradesmen to do jobs for them, it would appear that the safest precaution to follow is to take out accident insurance policies covering the workers.