INSURING AGAINST STRIKES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 359, 9 April 1910, Page 9

INSURING AGAINST STRIKES

GERMAN EMPLOYERS AND INDUS TRIAL WARS.

The astuteness of the Germau manuacturer is well illustrated by tile manner in which he 'has enthusiastically welcomed the proposition, made by certain societies, that he should insure against strikes. During Ihe last three years many strike insurance companies have sprung up in dillerent parts of the Fatherland, and they embrace practically all industries, in thirteen of these societies are insured manufacturers employing altogether about 1,200,000 men. in addition, there are some twenty-six employees' unions, whiih have a regular sysii'in of strike insurance, paying compensation at fixed rates, and yet nine more unions which pay compensation according to the merits of the case, but without fixed rate.

The tendency in some quarters is to regard this development as merely a weapon in class warfare, says the Westminster Gazette, analogous to the strike funds of trade unions; but. it is more generally admitted that it is really in the interests of employed as well as of employers that industrial undertakings should be secured against unexpected losses from strikes as from other' contingencies, and the fact that strike insurance societies do not pay compensation where the employers have been guilty of forcing on a strike unjustly prevents the institution being abused by provocative-piinded employers. Indeed, the employer must establish the fact that he is not responsible for the strike or lock-out. The rules of the various societies differ somewhat. . Some pay compensation from the day of the outbreak of the strike; others from the day it first formally reported upon: others only after it'has lasted a week. The length of' the strike also comes into acobunt. Some societies do not pay any compensation for a strike of less than a few days'duration; others consider that a strike is no strike until it has lasted a fortnight. A further limitation is laid upon the maximum length of strikes, the biggest societies refusing to -pay compensation for more than three months' stoppage of work, while a general strike, they hold, re- • lenses them from all obligations. Then, a£;ain, nearly every strike and insurance society, and every employers' union which insures against strikes, has its own peculiar standard of compensation. Some pay a fixed sum. the maximum usually being Is a day for each | ha.id (in strike, vast majority pay a percentage calculated on earnings. Thus the "League of German Employers' Unions for Compensation During Stoppage of Work" requires in premiums one-half per cent, of the wages bill, it's compensation rate being 12 1 /; per cent. ! in cases of strikes up to 1000 men; over , 1000 and under 2000 the compensation ' drops to 10 per cent., and so on. until in j ease of n lock-out: of over 8000 hands the employers gets compensation at the rate of only 2 1 / 3 per cent. I The operations carried on by the spe- j ci.nl strike insurance societies are very la rye. The society mentioned above collects nrcmiums on wages amounting to C23.n38.000. Another society, which operates only amoncr the metallurgical industries, collects premiums on wa<res of £10.274.000. and paid out during Inst, year was over £14,000 in compensation to insurers.