THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1909. THE MINERS' GRIEVANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3084, 5 January 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1909. THE MINERS' GRIEVANCE.

The attitude of the miners on the West Coast seems to be about as completely unjustifiable as any objection, or demand, that we have noted on the part of any Union of workers. Briefly, the position' is that the Miners' Federation is disgusted with the Government because the latter abstained in the Workers Compensation Act, 1908, from dealing in a grossly unfair manner with the employers, and the Pedex-ation still seeks to compel the employers to pay when neither in law nor in justice should they do anything of the kind. We have quoted the word "compensation" because money paid in the circumstances desired by the Federation would not be compensation—we really do not know what it should be called. The dispute that is going on now on the West Coast is evidence once again that Labour will

observe the industrial law only when the law is in accordance with its wishes —when it is not then Labour takes the law into its own hands. Employers may not, of course, do any such thing, and if they did dare to do so imagination fails to picture the pains and penalties that would be devised for such deliquents by our fearless, impartial and throughly democratic Government. It is unfortunate, however, for the employers, that they do not constitute a majority, because then numberless acts of "justice" would be passed by a Government ever anxious to see wrongs righted, and always perfectly prepared to immolate itself on the altar ot duty at a moment's notice. Under the Workers Compensation Act, 1908, certain diseases are regarded as accidents, j These are anthrax, poisoning by I lead, mercury, arsenic, or phosphorus, pneumoconiosis (as affecting miners only), and any other diseases which may be gazetted by Order in Council. Pneumoconiosis, or "miners' complaint," the latter designation being the name by which the disease is popularly known, is commonly contracted by miners—hence the reason for treating it as an accident. The Workers Compensation Act, 1908 is to operate in the future, but the Miners' Federation, practically, wish its operation to be of a retrospective character, and herein lies the extreme unfairness of their attitude. It seems that a fair number of miners are now suffering from the disease, and if they were taken on after the beginning of the present year it would only be a matter of time before the employers, or the insurance companies, would be called upon to pay heavy compensation. The employers, therefore, insist that those whom they are going to employ in the future shall undergo a medical examination. It might appear to those who have not followed the question that the object of the employers in insisting upon a medical examination is to refuse employment to those who show indications of the disease, but such is not at all the case —the employers do not wish to restrict employment, but they do desire to secure immunity from the payment of compensation in cases where they do not consider that they should pay up. The Act provides that if any worker suffers from or has previously suffered from any disease or personal injury, it shall be lawful for him to agree with any employer that no compensation shall be payable by that employer if incapacity or death is due to the said disease or injury. Employers merely wish to avail themselves of the very limited amount of protection which the Act affords them, and the Miners' Federation, with its outrageous sense of justice, J3 up in arms at the very idea.