Worker Now Worth Four Years’ Wages

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 460, 15 September 1928, Page 1

Worker Now Worth Four Years’ Wages

HIGHER COMPENSATION PARTIAL-DEPENDENCY RATE (Special to THE SUN) WELLINGTON, To-day. Compensation for the death of a worker in cases of partial dependency will be based in future upon four times the deceased’s annual contribution to relatives instead of • three times as hitherto. This decision was made by the Arbitration Court in Christchurch in respect of a claim by Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Kelly, the parents of a worker who was killed while in the employ of the Waimari County Council. Mr. Justice Frazer stated in his judgment that the Workers Compensation Act provided such a sum should be fixed as is reasonable and proportionate t o the injury suffered by the dependents, but the practice of the Court had been to regard three times the annual contributions as the measure of their loss, unless there were special circumstances that vtuum j ard of an increased or a reduced sum. > “This basis of computation in partial dependency cases was doubtless arrived at because the Act fixed compensation in cases of total dependency at 156 times the average weekly earnings of a deceased worker,” said the Judge. “The amending Act of 1926 has increased the measure of compensation in total dependency cases to 208 times the average weekly earnings.” The Court has decided that it will take four times the annual contributions as a general standard, in so far as it is possible to fix a standard, subject to the evidence adduced satisfying it that a larger or a smaller sum will not, in the circumstances of the particular case, be more reasonable and proportionate to the monetary loss suffered by the partial dependents. “It is impossible to fix a definite standard, but it is desirable to have some general rule that will serve as a guide in cases in which no special circumstances exist,’* concluded his Honour. . Judgment was given in this case for plaintiffs for £2OS, being compensation at the rate of £1 a week for four years. Funeral expenses and costs were also allowed.