DEFINITION OF "WORKER."

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14893, 16 October 1918, Page 2

DEFINITION OF "WORKER."

COMPENSATION CLAIM AGAINST A FARMER. AVxAIJNtoI

The judgment of the Arbitration Court m a compensation case given recently, is of general interest, and deals more particularly Avith tho relations of farmers and their employees. Elizabeth Cameron, widow of Duncan Cameron, late of Ohuka, s.ued James Gear, of Wellington, shecpfarmor, for compensation for the deatn of her husband, who was a working station manager employed by defendant. The Court, in its judgment, said that the deceased Du,ncan Cameron was in the employ of the defendant and on October 31st, 1916; met with an accident, which admittedly arose out of and in the course of his employment. Tlie action was brought by the widow- and her children for th© recovery of compensation under the Workers' Compensation Acts, and the only question ..fo; the decision of the Court was whether or not the deceased was a "worker" within the meaning of these Acts. The term "worker" as defined in the principal Act and the amendments of 1911 means "any person who has-en-tered or works under a contract of service or apprenticeship with an employer, whether by way of manual labour, clerical work, or otherwise, and whether the remuneration, be wages, salary, or otherwise, but does not include any person employed otherwise than by way of manual labour whose remuneration exceeds £260 a year." The wages of the deceased at the time of liis death exceeded £260 a year, and the question to be determined, therefore, was whether he was employed otherwise than by way of manual labour. He was manager of defendant's run at Ohuka, and the evidence showed that he was correctly designated "working manager." "In the present case we have nc doubt," says .the judgment, "that the manual labour performed by- deceased was so performevd under and in pursuance of his contract of employment, that it was a real and substantial part of his employment, and that it was not merely incidental or necessary to his duties as manager of the run, and that it formed a substantial element in determining the remuneration he received. We hold, therefore, that decease; was a 'worker' within the meaning of the Workers' Compensation Acts, and nlaintifr is entitled to recover compensation intpursuance cf those Acts." Judgment was -given for plaintiff foi £500, together with funeral expenses and costs.

The case was heard at Napier, when Mr. M. Myers appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr P. \V. O'Regan for the defendant.