Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XVI. - Workmen's compensation

Collection:: Economics Books

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION. 297 who should be entitled to compensation. The Act, as originally passed, aimed at the inclusion only of workmen whose occupations were hazar- dous and who were engaged in industries which were more or less organ- ised. Thus the Act covered workers in all but the smallest factories, in mines, on the railways and tramways, on certain types of building work, and in certain less important branches of employment. Power was given to the Government of India to include by notification any other classes of workmen who were employed in occupations declared to be hazardous ; but both in the notifications so issued and in the amend- ments to the schedule of ““ workmen ” made by the legislature in 1929, the two conditions of organisation and hazardous employment have been oenerally observed. Objections to Limitations on Classes of Workmen. - There are obvious objections on the ground of logic to both of these criteria and, indeed, to almost any other limitation on the classes of workmen who should be included. The effects of an accident upon a workman or his dependants bear little relation to the nature of the es- tablishment in which he has been employed ; the employer, unless he is connected with his workmen by family ties, is more likely to give com- pensation without being compelled to do so if his establishment is a large one. And while it is true generally that accidents are more frequent in organised industry than in other occupations, there are branches of employment which are not organised, but which are distinctly hazardous. Further, the fact that an industry is not hazardous, 7.e,, that accidents in it are infrequent, in no way mitigates the effects of an accident when it does occur ; if a worker is killed in a non-hazardous occupation, his dependants suffer no less hardship because the accident was an unlikely, dhe. Objections to Including all Workers. At the same time, in the conditions at present prevailing in [ndia, there are valid objections to the adoption of an all-embracing definition of “ workman ”. For the mere enactment of a law giving all employees the right to claim compensation would certainly fail to prove effective, unless some form of compulsory insurance were adopted, and we do not think that, in present circumstances, such a step is reasonably -practicable. The expense of collecting premia from a large number of small rural employers, most of whom carry on bheir work far from any important centre, would necessitate charges much higher in proportion to the risks involved than those at present levied from the large employers; and it would be almost impossible to secure effective administration of the Act. * Further. while a universal *Mr Joshi and Diwan Chaman Lall desire to call attention to a Scheme dealing with the control and administration of Workmen's Com- pensation furnished to the Commission by the General Council of the British Trades Union Congress and recommend to Government that the scheme be examined with a view to its possible application in India. —"

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