COMPENSATION FOR WORKERS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 4000, 29 November 1918, Page 2

COMPENSATION FOR WORKERS.

AMENDMENT OF ACT URGED BY MR POLAND.

Speaking on the above Bill, in the House of Representatives on October 29, Mr Poland (Ohinemuri) said :— I desire to take this opportunity to bring before the Government the need for an amendment of the Workers' Compensation Act. There was a time when we prided ourselves in New Zealand in that, as regards labour legislation, we led the world. We are perhaps inclined to be a little boastful at times, but there was some ground for the statement, because, in. regard to assisting workers who had met with misfortune, we provided • from a fund, paid for by the employers, assistance which'was not exceeded' in any part of the worldr Ten years ago we passed the present Workers' Compensation Act, and with the exeception of a few minor amendments we have not done anything to improve the position of the workers since then. Under our present legislation we provide for a man who has met with an accident that disables him from following his occupation : we provide him with half the wages he was earning when he met with that accident; and'if he is. killed we give his wife and children a sum amounting to three times the annual earnings—that is, six times half earnings—but not exceeding £500. I think it is high time we should investigate thoroughly the position pf the insurance companies who are tak-. ing over the liability of the employers and paying compensation to injured workers. I have brought this matter before the House almost every year since 1908 ; and I purpose to-day to tell the Government that it is not fH to represent the people of this country if it delays beyond this session a radical improvement in our workers' compensation legislation. We have been endeavouring, some of us, to get the Government to make workers' compensation a State concern entirely, with the object of ensuring that the money which the employers pay . for the compensation of their men shall go to those men, and shall not go to an insurance company, shall not be frittered away in the shape of commissions and doctors' expenses, or in the shape of legal expenses to fight the just rights of the men. who meet with accidents at their work. The Government has taken up the attitude that if it makes workers' compensation the concern of a State insurance office only, it will offend those financial institutions to which it.looks for assistance when it wants to borrow money. That is the only argument I have ever heard against it, though I do not call it an argument at all. I want to tell the Government that other /countries have done what we are asking, and have done it during this war. The Labour Government of Queensland has brought "in a Workers' Compensation Act under which the insurance of workmen is compulsory on the employer, and it must be taken out with thY State. The State has established a Workers' Compensation Act there, and it is only with the State that the employer can assure, and the result already in the first year of its operatori has been that out of £1 4s 3d paid by the employer £1 goes to the workman. In New Zealand, out of every £2 Is 6d paid £1. finds its way to the unfortunate victim of -an accident, and the other £1 Is 6d goes in other directions. In this country it is the commonest thing possible for the insurance company to fight every case of accident-insurance claim ; in -many cases they are fought right into the Appeal Court, and in almost, every case they are fought to the door of tfie Arbitration Court and the Supreme Court in order to force .. the unfotunate worker to take less than he is entitled to. Then there is this injustice under our Workers' Compensation Act: unless a man has been off work for more than seven days he is not paid, but payment. starts from the eighth day ; and he must be off work for fourteen days before he can be paid right back to the first day of disability. In 1904, in Russia, a Workers' Compensation Act was brought into operation, under which Act payment was made after the third day; in France it is the . third day; in Belgium it is four days; and in other countries there are similar provisions. But in New Zealand the worker has to be off work for

seven days before lie can get any compensation, and he has to be absent from work fourteen days before he can get paid from the first day. The result is that workers are often induced to remain away from work for fourteen days in order to get their compensation. In Queensland the maximum amount of compensation that is paid is '£75.0, and here ir, is £500. If a man meets with an accident in going to or coming from his work no compensation is paid here, but in Queensland compensation is paid. In New Zealand if a man meets with an accident —unless he is killed or very seriously disabled—no compensation is paid to his wife and children if the accident occurs through the worker's fault; but in Queensland compensation is paid to them. Under the Queensland Act domestics are insured as they are insured in New Zealand, and the rate charged there is the same rate as is charged in New Zealand and in Victoria, but in Queensland the one charge has been ample for two years. I do not propose at • the present time to go into the whole . question at any length, because the matter does not require elaboration. - Everyone must recognise that where a man who is only in receipt of a llv- . ing-wage-—and- 90 per cent, of the "•" workers in New Zealand.are not in receipt of more than a living-wage — - where such a man meets with an ac- "} cident he requires his full pay, and -; even more, to meet his expenses, be- :J cause he has medical attendance and, medicines to pay for. Under the pre--;J sent law of half wage and £1 for •. medical attendance he must get into' ' , debt, and haying once got into debt \

how is he to recover his financial position again ? I say that if a worker is disabled by sickness from doing his work his family should be provided for in the way of compensation, If an employer is working a horse and the horse gets sick and is not able to do its work the man does not turn the horse'adrift, but looks after the animal; but in the case of a human being becoming *tck the employer turns the" worker off and gets somebody else to do his work. Why should a human "being be? treated worse than a horse? If anything goes wrong with the machinery an employer sends it away and has it thoroughly repaired his own expense, but with regard to human beings employers dp not consider that they have any right to help them ex cept to give them the least the law forces employers to give, and when the time comes that they are not able to work they are turned adrift. Now, with regard to the Civil Service,if an employee in the clerical branch of the Civil Service has spent ten years in the employment of the State he is entitled to twelve months' holiday on half pay. But what considera ■ tion is given to the ordinary worker ? None at all. I urge upon the Government to (regard this as'an urgent matter : as a war measure, or anything they like —anything that will induce them to recognise the hardships of the present system, and to bring in an Act which will be a credit to the country and to the Government, and which will not be as'the present Act is—a disgrace.