EMPLOYERS AND COMPENSATION

Southland Times, Issue 23587, 15 August 1938, Page 11

EMPLOYERS AND COMPENSATION

REPLY TO MINISTER’S STATEMENT (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 13. ' The statement made by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) when referring to the Workers Compensation Act is commented upon by the New Zealand Employers’ Federation. Mr Armstrong said that cases had been reported to him where employers had defied the law and had stopped the payment of compensation contrary to the letter of the amendment of the Workers Compensation Act 1937. “There is something to be said on the other side, particularly in cases where there is permanent partial disablement,” states the federation. “Such cases at some time invariably reach the point where a lump sum settlement is readily accessible and no particular difficulty arises, because in the event of agreement between the parties not being possible the matter can quickly be decided by the Court, but in many recent cases the Court of Arbitration has not been in that particular place for 12 months and cases which have reached the stage when a lump sum settlement of employers’ liability should be made have proved exceedingly difficult to settle. The injured worker has refused to accept all offers of a reasonable sum calculated in accordance with the general practice and the recorded decisions of the Court of Arbitration, and so the employer has been forced to continue paying out weekly compensation for a long period, and at the end of such a period has had to pay as well a lump sum which should have been decided at the time when the case first became ripe for such settlement. “No one would quarrel with Mr Armstrong’s avowed intention to impose a penalty where the employer improperly stops the payment of compensation, but on the other hand some provision is necessary to enable the settlement of a case to be made when it is ripe for settlement and the employer should not be called upon to go on paying weekly compensation for indefinite periods in such cases.”