Where State Dabbling Put Up Costs

Chronicle (Levin), 30 May 1949, Page 2

Where State Dabbling Put Up Costs

WELLINGTON, May 28. Commenting on the reply of the

bU CUIIlJJl'cLIJLL lo DIIcLL preiUlUUlb had increased since the (State made a monopoly of workers' co.mpensataon,' t?he couneil of the Pire and Accident Underwriters' Association of New Zealand (Mr. H. G. Wiley) said yesterday that the 1947 Workers' Compensation Amendment Act, granting increasea benefits to workers, became efiective in April, 1948. Prom that time till March, 1949, the private eompanies' rates were not increased. Amending legislation, he said, was also provided for employers' liability under common law to be insured for an unlimited amount, whereas under workers' compensation benefits were restricted to a fixed sum for death, and weckly payments to be limited to £5 10s per weok for periods of incapacity. ' ' Had the business been left with the eompanies it was intended that the rates would remain unaltered till March 31, 1950, when the position would have been reviewed in the light of results, and rates revised on a fixect claims cost experienee, " said Mr. Wilev, who added that • employers, especiallv the larger industrial concerns, were satisfied to apply to their respeetive insurers for the" additional eonnnon law cover which they eonsidered necessarv to adequately protect thean for any claims that they might De called on to pay.