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’3 COMPENSATION. 303 in the case of sums due to women and persons under a legal dis- ability, the Commissioner can invest the sums deposited with him or deal with them otherwise for the advantage of the recipients. Recurring payments are made only for temporary disablement ; and these can be commuted at any time to a single payment by agreement between the parties, while either party has a right to commutation after payments have been made for six months. The continuance of this system is favoured by employers generally, and workmen also appear to prefer lump-sum payments. The opinion of the trade unions is divided, and it is possible that some of those who advocate a greater use of recurring payments do so in the hope that larger amounts would thereby be pay- able. The opinion of those who are concerned with the administration of the Act is, on the whole, strongly opposed to any substantial change of the present system, though some would give power to the Commissioners to disburse compensation by instalments, without altering the character of the emplovers’ liability. Expenditure of Lump Sums. The two main considerations are the use which is likely to be made of the money and the question of administration. Ixperience in other countries generally tends to the conclusion that recurring pay- ments are more beneficial to workmen and their dependants, as a large sum disbursed to them is apt to be squandered. And some of the witness- es who appeared before us (including some employers) thought that the lump sums now paid were generally squandered. But we received on the whole more evidence to the contrary effect. That the sums are dissipated in a number of cases is probable; but the ordinary Indian workman and his dependants in the village have a very acute realisation of the value of money, and are in most cases in a position to derive sub- stantial advantage from a capital sum. Many are enabled to liquidate debts on which they are paying, as interest, charges far exceeding any recurring payments that could be regarded as equivalent to the capital sum involved. The purchase of a plot of land is a method commonly adopted in other cases, with beneficial results, and we have come across other sound methods of investment. And while substantial sums are doubtless spent on marriages, expenditure of this kind is usually under- taken out of no love of extravagance, but because of the pressure of social customs ; some such expenditure is obligatory even upon the man who has no capital, and the possession of ready money saves ruinous charges on account of interest. While the evidence is hardly sufficient to justify an emphatic view, we are inclined to the conclusion that the benefit generally derived from the sums received is greater than that which would accrue from recurring payments on an equivalent scale. Lump Sums and Administration. From the administrative point of view, any large extension of a system of recurring payments would introduce serious complica- tions. In most cases long distances separate the recipients irom the source of the monev. and there is no doubt that hitherto the

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