WORKERS' COMPENSATION
ACTION THIS SESSION ONLY MINOR CHANGES REMOVING ANOMALIES (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The main amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act are not- being submitted this session, but the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Minister of Labour, will immediately introduce a measure improving to some extent- workers’ compensation and eliminating some of the anomalies that exist. in the present enact meats.
Mr. Armstrong said the. bill would contain only a. few clauses. One. would increase the minimum compensation in cases of fatal accidents from £SOO to £SOO. It also would bo provided that the weekly payment should not be- less than £2 a. week in any case, the present Taw permitting payments as low as £1 a week. Relief workers and others whose weekly average earnings worked out. at a low rale would benefit considerably under this clause. The bill would outline the method of computing the average earnings for the last 12 months. Compensation would be granted to the extent of two-thirds of the actual rate earned at the time of the accident. It would not be necessary to go back over the year to ascertain what a worker actually earned, said the Minister. It would be assumed he was working full time at the rate paid him on the day of the accident. Tho Minister said that under the existing law, an employer or insurance- company. on the report of their own doctor, could stop a- man’s compensation. The onus was then thrown on the worker to go to tho expense of bringing a case before iho Compensation Court. There was a possibility of a, delay of five or six months. Many workers were, in effect, -starved into agreeing to an amount to wipe out their claims, as they had no money to tide them over the period involved. The amendment would bring the law into conformity with that, of England, that compensation must be computed by the court or through medical referees.
Another important clause- will rank compensation with wages in cases of bankruptcy.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19123, 18 September 1936, Page 11
Word Count
338WORKERS' COMPENSATION Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19123, 18 September 1936, Page 11
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