WORKERS' COMPENSATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1876, 9 October 1913, Page 7

WORKERS' COMPENSATION.

« ■' AN AMENDING BILL. A Bill to amend the Workers'' Compensation: Act, 1908, was circulated in. tho House of Representatives yesterday. A further protection is to be given to a workor who is under twenty-ono years of age, or who is an indentured apprentice or If such a worker should bo so injured as to ,be permanently disabled, either wholly or partially, his averago weekly wage is to bo deemed to be the weokly sum whioh j he would probably havo been able to | earn if he had then attained the age of twenty-ono years, or if he had completed his apprenticeship or had ceased to be an improver, being in no case less than £2 per week. A new sub-clauso provides that compensation may bo claimed in respect of seamen when a Now Zealand ship is lost with all hands. In such a case the ckim must be made within eighteen months of tho date at which the ship is deomed to have been lost with all hands. The Act already applies to accidents on New Zealand ships which are not. lost. It is proposed ' that if the parties agree in writing to do so, proceedings for tho recovery of compensation, or for determination of any question as to tho, distribution of Buoh compensation among dependants may be taken before a magistrate. Proceedings for the recovery 'of compensation may bo taken by the Publio Trustee upon instruction from a party entitled to take proceedings. Unless there is a direction to the contrary, all compensation moneys shall bo paid to the Public Trustee, who shall hold them until ho receives a direction from tho Court as to how they are to bo disbursed. It is proposed, also, that tho right to recover compensation shall survive notwithstanding tho deatli eithor of the employer or of tho worker. An amendment of the schedule provides that the compensation for tho loss of one eye shall bo 50 per cent, of tho allowance for total incapacity, and not 30 per cent., as formerly.