WHERE SERVANTS ARE INSURED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14002, 7 September 1907, Page 6

WHERE SERVANTS ARE INSURED.

Per. nearly a century—97 years —Viennese householders,have been compelled by law to tako care of sick domestic servants, and provide hospital accommodation for them when it ; was not poesibla to caxe : for them in to' house. -Olio employer was obliged to- pay' the hospital charges' until the ' servant recovered, unices at the timo of. engagement it. kid be«?t , specially stipulated, tliat mich liability should be.limited to one month's expenses, and, further, that such'agreement had been duly communicated to the police. This was tho law from. 1810. Mare than half a century later, in 1864, tho municipality de>cidcd to come to tho relief of the householder by establishing a sort of employers' insitmtco association, known as the"Dienst-'boton-Krankontefa," or Servants'' ' Sick: Fuhd, which would 1 for a moderate premium relieve tho employer of much anxiety and expense also. Tho Kraakenkassa. seems to havo performed tho "work well.. - It' is' economically and • efficiently managed, and •contrives to mako a moderate' profit eoah a ysAY. It baa a iteserve fund to-day of- mora ' than' £7600. ' • ' ' . ..•

Tho rules ami regulations of the Vienna. Krankentaa . tm> ! simple enough, :' Every. householder can insure coo _ or. more, servants (there is no limit of .number) at the rate pf two' kronen, Is Bd, 'a year, payable in' advance half-yearly during the first 14 days of January and July.' The- law. provides that this stim-18 : to bo fixed by t-no City Council I each'year according 1 to'the experiences of the past year, but it haa not been varied for a long .timo.,. .Hie Krankenkass issues, a book, for a feo of 2d, in which the name and ccscrtption of servant insured is entered. In case of sickness this book is taken as prima facie evidence of insurance. There'is no question'as to .the definition of the word "servant," thanks to the' system of police legist-ration' which prevails in Austria. The declares that the term includes all parsons reported/'as servants, and all other working persons, mote and female, not belonging to 'any special fcradi benefit organisation, andi' for. wjhom the' em. ploycr would bo t . ;iiablo.>Ute'coming' going of servants. makes no difference t« tho insurance. ■ Tho omployer. is only, roqiured to said the namo arid description of tho new servant - t.o tho Krankenkassa, and no extra payment is demanded. When a•' servant is ill, ho oi she tilcos this book to the .Krankenk&ssa, and at onoo receives a certificate of admission te a hospital, va'idi for one month] The ICmnkonl:assa has arrangements -with all tho hospitals to take patients at the lowest rata of payment, which is now 2s a day. If 'at the. end of tho jnenth the ; servant has not recovered, tho liability for' further treatment devolves upon the .patient's birthplace," to the authorities, of which' application is at I one© mode by the hospital: Of course, tl|e KTankenkassa, as its name implies, does not cover any insurance' "'of wages during sickness, and whether those ore paid or .not dependsAupon individual circumstances. Upon tho whole, it seems that the Kraakonlcusa is doing'very useful work/ very few complaint? are heard regarding its operations either from employers or. em-' ployed, and .it certainly saves both parties an immense amount of inconvenienoo aid friction too. Its management expenses. are quits moderate, and the small profit balance which it records cadi year shows that, its' premium rate is fairly computed. It is " interesting' to note that the Krankenkassa, besides fulfilling its primary' object. 1 lias greatly fulfilled' the moral arid physical conditions of tho domestic classes, which are said to have been most deplorable before its organisation in 1864. ■ At that time domestio servants in Vienna were living almost, in. a state of slavery,—St. James's Budget., .