ANOTHER SOCIAL CHARTER FOR THE WORKERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3488, 18 January 1921, Page 51

ANOTHER SOCIAL CHARTER FOR THE WORKERS.

COMPULSORY INSURANCE AGAINST UN EMPLOYMEN T. ‘‘lt is a measure of the widest scope, involving: a social change of the highest order of importance. Some eight million persons are directly affected by the provisions of the Act, and a charge of several millions sterling upon the public purse is contemplated by it.” London Daily Telegraph. Another great Social Charter for the workers has come into force which Iras vast implications. The Unemployment Insurance Act became operative in November, and makes provision for 12,000,000 workers in case of unemployment-—tho spectre which has for too long haunted tho toilers in industry. All Under £250 a A T ear.— “The new Insurance Act applies virtually to all employed persons, including non-manual workers, whose remuneration does not exceed £250 a year, but exclud ing everyone engaged in agriculture an i domestic service. “The 1911 Act insured 4,000,000, the new Act 12,000,000, against unemployment. In the case of men, the employer provides 4d a week, the workman himself 4d, and the State 2d. The benefit is 15s vveekly, with a. maximum of 15 weeks in one insurance year. Provision is made for adjusting briefer durations of benefit to the periods during which the insurance has been paid. The rates and benefits for women and children are slightly lower.” Output and Unemployment. “Tlio opposition threatened by the trade unions is fortunately disappearing, for Ur Macnamara was able to announce that oy October 31 no less than 148 unions were preparing schemes for administration.” says The Times. That- is as it should be, for ethics and policy alike demand from organised labour a hearty co-operation in improving social conditions. This particular stage, however, has an immediate effect only on those already in employment. But it has a wider indirect bearing on the general question. The industrial fabric of the country is close-knit; uneasy conditions and low out put in any one industry affect the prosperity of all industries, and the residuum of unemployment outside the direct scope of the new Act rises and falls with the prosperity of industry as a whole. Increase of output is the surest, way to decrease unemployment. The new Act, by reducing the fear of unemployment, should lessen the strength of an unselfish if mistaken motive for the ‘cal canny’ policy. Under the provision made for special schemes a still wider prospect of good is opened. With a limited contribution from the State, a joint body, representing the employers and employees of an industry throughout the country or of a defined area, can administer a scheme of its own.” Unemployment and Sickness. “The new law extends the principle >f unemployment insurance to the whole body of persons at present covered by the National Health Insurance scheme,” says the Telegraph. “Hitherto unemployment insurance has been applied experimentally to a portion of that vast industrial community, the workers in the particular trades concerned numbering about four millions. Henceforward that figure "will be multiplied by three. Apart from the classes exempted, in view of obvious practical considerations, from the operation >f the Act—of which those engaged in agricultural and domestic employment are the chief—unemployment insurance, on a contributory basis, will be added to the benefits in case of sickness which have already made so invaluable a difference in the life British working people. —ls s Week. “The greater burden is assumed by the employers, whose contribution is to amount to over £6,000,000 annually, but something short of that figure is to be provided by the contributions of the insured, and about £3,800,000 by the State. The benefit, which before the war stood at 7s weekly for a person engaged in any of the trades covered bv the partial scheme, is now fixed at 15s weekly for men and 12s for women. When in full operation the scheme will provide benefit dating from the fourth day after the beginning of unemployment, this promptitude" in the ex tending of relief being a most valuable feature of the scheme. In certain directions its operation is limited bv the finan cial necessities of the case, as, for instance, by the regulation that not more than 15 weeks’ benefit shall be payable in any one year. “A change has now been inaugurated which lessens to a very substantial extent the pressure of the worst of the evils w 7 iih which the wage-earner had hitherto to reckon. The legal claim to 15s a week during unemployment, a claim guaranteed by the State as a permanent right to the worker, profoundly alters the conditions under which loss of work had formerly to be met. It is no longer to be remedied only by such aid as a trade union might find itself in a position to afford, aid which secured lio equality of benefit as between different classes of workers, and which was dependent, both for its amount and for its continuance, on the financial position of each individual union. “The new law, regarded without prejudice, represents a great and important advance along the oath of social reform. To attack the problem of unemployment upon yet broader linens, dealing with economic causes rather than their effects in tho temporary slackening of industry, may be a practicable enterprise in the future. But an actual and nresent measure of insurance against unemploymet is a

substantial advantage, worth infinitely more than any tentative tinkering with a larger question as yet very imperfectly explored. Conditions. “The employer is responsible for affix ing the stamp, representing tire joint weekly contributions of himself and the insured person, the amount of the latter's contribution being subsequently deducted from the weekly wages. The State also makes a contribution, and the proportion works out as follows:

“The scheme provides that not more than 15 weeks’ benefit may be drawn in any insurance year. Only one week of benefit may be drawn for every six contributions standing to the credit of an insured person, and benefit is not payable for the first three days of unemployment. After the first year no benefit will be payable until at least 12 contributions have been paid, but during the first year benefit may be drawn up to eight weeks as soon as four contributions have been paid.”

Employ er. Worker. Stale. Men of 18 cr upwards d. d!. 4 4 d. Women of 18 or upwards 3£ 3 1 2-3 Boys of 16 and under 18 2 2 1 1-3 Girls of 16 and under 18 2 1| 1 “Unemployment benefit is payable at the following rate -per week : — lien S. d. 0 Women .. .. 12 0 Boys .. .. 7 0 Girls .. .. 6 0