WORKERS’ COMPENSATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 7

WORKERS’ COMPENSATION.

OBJECTIONS TO PROPOSED AMENDMENT. That employers were taking a strong stand against the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act was stated bv the president (Mr Forsyth Johnston)'at a meeting of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association (says the Wellington Post ’s correspondent). Manufacturers and employers in the Dominion could not stand a Bill of the sizep roposed II would simply mean that workers would increase not the value of their work but the cost of the work. The extra cost would have to be put on prices, and this extra cost would come out of the pockets of the workers themselves. The summarised provisions of the amendments to the Act would have the effect of (1) increasing payments to a worker incapacitated by accident from •18 per cent, of his weekly average earnings, with a limit of £3 Jus a week, to 100 per cent, of his weekly average earnings, with a limit of '£3 his week; (2) increasing the maximum total liability of tiie employer for weekly payments in cases of incapacity from £750, as present fixed, to £1000; (3) making payment to dependants of workers killed by accident in all cases £100; (-1) removing the present limitation of £IOOO to a- sum recoverable by way of damages by any worker injured by accident arising out of negligence of a fellow employee. An actuarial investigation hud been made by the Underwriters’ Association, and this had disclosed the fact that the foregoing provisions would necessitate an increase in premiums of 131 per cent. The present cost of insurance to employers of the Dominion was approximately £OOO,OOO to £700,000 per annum, and therefore if Mr Howard’s Bill became law the cost would be increased to approximately £1,500,000 per annum. It was decided to forward to the Minister of Labour and local members of Parliament and manufacturers’ associations a. protest against the inclusion of manufacturers in the proposed Act.