WORKERS’ INSURANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 9

WORKERS’ INSURANCE

INDUSTRIALISTS MAY SEEK STATE SCHEME A BURDEN TO INDUSTRY \ Special to THE SUN WELLINGTON, Today. One of the possibilities of the present committee of inquiry into Workers’ Compensation is that industrialists may ask the Government to take up a State scheme for the insurance of workers in the industrial field. -v. The increasing and the added burden to industry are causing concern to manufacturers and general industrialists in the Dominion, and the fact that they are committed by resolution of the past Industrial Conference to some the compensation system, especially in relation to hospital and medical allowances, increases their uneasiness. As there appears to be little prospect of relief from the companies, most underwriters claiming that there is nowadays little profit in accident insurance, the curious situation is presenting itself of employers who are opposed to the principle of State interferenfce in business rapidly approaching the point where they will leel driven to ask for a State Industrial Insurance Fund in order to keep down their rising costs. To this decision they are helped by the fact that sawmillers whose insurance premiums rose to a very high figure have established a mutual scheme with excellent results and a general lowering of the premiums. The whole matter is certain to be reviewed by the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association at its next meetihg.