THE WORKMENS' COMPENSATION ACT.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 149, 7 January 1902, Page 3

THE WORKMENS' COMPENSATION ACT.

TO THE EDITOB. Bie.—ln commenting upon the above measure in your leader of the 31st ultimo you have undoubtedly shown that the liability of the employer is very Blight in regard to compensation to the injured workman. According to your rendering of clause 5 of the aLove Act, and as borne out by the reading of the second schedule also, which reads: " The compensation shall be of a weekly payumnt during the incapacity to earn full wages, and after the second week, not exceeding 50 per cent of his average weekly earnings during the previous twelve months." So that the workman is still left to the tender mercy of a sympathetic public in case of accident. This measure was generally supposed to be framed on the lines of the English Act, whbh is one of the beat and most practical of any Compensation Act in the world, as your published extract demonstrates beyond a doubt; but perhaps the quotation of aome leading points of the lav/ as existing in some of the continental states of Europe may be of some advantage if merely to show how far they are in advance of this colony. Take the small kingdom of Greece. The law there applies in every case to people employed in mines, quarries, smelting works, &c, in accidents which produce incapacity lasting more than four days. If the incapacity lasts less than three months the injured workman will receive an allowance equal to one-half of his earnings at the date of the accident. Where the duration of the incapacity exceeds three months the amount of the compensation payable under the Act is, in case of non-fatal accidents, an allowance equivalent to one-half; if the incapacity is total (or the man has lost a hand or a foot), or if the incapacity is partial only, one-third of the wages earned by the injured workman at the time of the accident. In the event of the death of the injured workman, an annuity equivalent to three-fourths of the allowance is to be paid to his widow and children, being divided among them equally per capita ; or if the workman leaves no widow or children, then to his parents equally between them; but if only one person shall become entitled to the annuity, then the amount of such annuity shall be equivalent to one half only of the allowance of the decea-ed. A widow loses her right to her annuity on remarriage. Male children are to be paid the annuity only after reaching the age of sixteen, females only from the expiration of one year from their. marriage. If the accident caused the immediate death of the injured man, or if his death takes place before the amount of his allowance has boon determined, in either event the amount of the annuity payable after his death is to be calculated as if he had been entitled to the allowance provided in case of total incapacity, and is to become due at once as from the date of his death. The cost of all medicine and all expenses of medical attendance caused by the accident and during the three months following the date of the same must be defrayed by the employer, and if death takes place after the expiration of one year the employer must pay funeral expenses. I have only quoted some of the leading points of the Grecian law, but quite ample to show the hollowness of the Act in thi3 colony. It is believed that some of the other European States have in existence compensation laws quite as far-reaching as'the State I have quoted, consequently we in this colony, who are usually held up as an example of social progresaivelegislation, shall have to look to our laurels if we are to hold our own as the leaders of the world in social progressive labour legislation. The Compensation Act of last session is altogether behind the times, and is unworkable and unsatisfactory, and requires to be amended so as to meet the requirements of all cases and classes of workers generally, for in its crude form it casts a slur upon the social status of the workers of this colony and is a stigma upon the statute book of the colony in its Bocial labour legislation, as it apparently benefits only the insurance companies aud the capitalists generally. Thanking you in anticipation, I am, etc., A Unionist.