COMPENSATION LAW

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 60, 8 September 1938, Page 14

COMPENSATION LAW

WEEKLY PAYMENTS

AMENDMENTS TO THE ACT

Weekly payments of compensation to workers under the Workers' Compensation Act are not to be discontinued except in specified cases, according to a section of the Statutes Amendment Bill, which was read a first time in the House of Representatives yesterday. These cases are those where the, payment is in respect of total disablement and the worker has actually returned to work, by agreement with the worker, by leave of the Court, or by order of the Gourt. Upon application being made that the worker is wholly or partially recovered, or that any incapacity from which he suffers is not due in whole or part to the accident, the Court may diminish the payments, but the fact that any application for leave is granted or refused, or that the worker has agreed to the ending or diminishing of the weekly payments, shall not be taken into account by the Court of Arbitration in determining in any proceedings whether or not the worker is entitled to compensation. If any employer ends or diminishes the weekly payments, he shall be liable for the amount in respect of which default is made.

A consequential repeal is made in the 1936 Amendment Act, and the present Bill provides further that certificates already given by medical committees shall not be conclusive. It is prescribed, too, that the time limit for the commencement of action for' the recovery of compensation shall be computed from the passing of this Bill instead of from the date of the accident.