AN UNFAIR SYSTEM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3085, 6 January 1909, Page 4

AN UNFAIR SYSTEM.

A swious accident to a wcrker is an accident indeed, and the law very properly provides that employees meeting with mishaps shall be paid compensation by,their employers, or, in other words, the law, practically, coropf Is employers to insure their men against accident, or take the risk of failing to do so. With the principh of compensation for accidents sustained by workers every individual of humane instincts must sympathise, but wherein lies the justice of forcing employers to pay the whole of the premiums in connection with the accident insurance policies taken out for their employees' protection? The present practice is monstrously unfair. Employers, frequently poor men, are compelled to pay the whole premium, whan there is no reason whatever why employees should not contribute a portion of the premium. For instance, where an employer has to pay £3O per annum, we will way, to protect both himself and Ms employees, this is admittedly a large sum for him to pay; but were he to pay a fifth of it, and his employees the balance, pro rata, out of wages drawn by them, the system would certainly be more equitable than that which prevails at present. Possibly the trouble that is now in progress in regard to the miners' complaint question would not have occurred, or have been nearly so acute if the miners themselves contributed a reasonable sum towards their own insurance. As it is, employers have to pay heavy premiums to accident insurance companies, and the idea seems to be in certain quarters that the compensation should be still furthar increased, which would mean heavier premiums, and greater compensation—all out of the employers' pockets—while the employees are not to contribute a single penny towards their own protection. The system is admittedly unfair.