DIFFICULT PROBLEMS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 903, 26 October 1933, Page 10

DIFFICULT PROBLEMS.

Amendment of Act is Suggested. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, October 26. Two difficult problems were presented by the subject of workers’ compensation, states the annual report of the Employers’ Federation, tabled at the annual meeting here to-day. ” First, it appears most likely that the cost of insurance will go up because of the prevalence of part-time employment. This sounds paradoxical, but the position is that the law, as it is interpreted at present, requires compensation to be paid to an injured worker or to the dependents of a worker who may be killed by accident, as though such worker had been em- \ ployed practically full-time, even j though he may actually have been employed for only part time. The effect is that insurance companies are required to pay out benefits on a basis of full time work while premiums are paid only on wages for the actual time worked. “ Secondly, the decision of the House of Lords that earthquake risks are included under the Workers’ Compensation Act may also cause premiums to be raised. We have been asked by the Underwriters’ Association to support their request, already made to the Government, to amend the Act so as to provide that earthquake risk shall definitely be deleted. Whether employers decide to do that or not is a matter for careful consideration. In the event of one or other of these two factors causing insurance premiums to be raised, thus adding to industrial costs; employers may desire to give consideration to some radical alteration of our whole system of Workers.' Compensation administration with a view to making it more economical.”