SHAREMILKERS MUST BE INSURED AGAINST ACCIDENT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 48, 7 October 1949, Page 7

SHAREMILKERS MUST BE INSURED AGAINST ACCIDENT

The importance to farmers who employ sharemilkers of being aware of their responsibility to ihsure them against any loss by accident, under the provisions of the Workers Compensation Act, was stressed in a letter received by the Cambridge Dairy Corporation from the National Dairy Federation. The letter states that in respect of the three classes of sharemilkers, namely 29 per cent, 39 per cent and 50 per cent, they are in each case regarded as workers within the meaning of the Act and farm owners are consequently responsible for the workers’ compensation insurance.

So far as the wage basis on which the sharemilker should be insured is concerned, Section 7 (4) of the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act, 1936, provides that in respect of such persons the weekly earnings shall be deemed to be the minimum rate of wages fixed for adult workers by the Minimum Wage Act,. 1945, and in force at the time of the accident.

The practice of the State Fire Office which' administers the Employers’ Liability Fund, is therefore to insist that sharemilkers must be insured on at least the basis of the weekly wage laid down by the Minimum Wage Act. If, however, the farrribr desired to insure the sharemilker on any higher rates, he may do so and in that case compensation would be paid, within the limits of the Workers’ Compen.sation Act, on whatever basis was selected.