Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XVI. - Workmen's compensation

Collection:: Economics Books

WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION, 307 Of the exceptions, this is the one most commonly invoked, and there is reason to fear that this defence has resulted occasionally in the rejection of equitable claims. Moreover the withholding of compensation for fatal accidents which are covered by the exceptions gives rise to great hardship to individuals and is not likely to have any appreciable educative effects on other workmen. We recommend that the exceptions should not apply in the case of fatal accidents. The case for abrogating the ex- ceptions in other classes of accidents is less strong, but having regard to the hardships which result, the majority of us consider that similar protec- tion should be extended to workmen whose injuries involve the permanent loss of 50 per cent or more of their earning capacity. Sir Victor Sassoon and Sir Alexander Murray join in the recommendation that the Act should be amended to enable compensation to be claimed in all cases of fatal accidents, even though due to misconduct. They, however, do not consider that an employer should be held liable for a non-fatal accident that is directly attributable to intoxication, wilful disobedience or wilful removal or disregard of any safety device. In a case of death the de- pendents may experience difficulty in rebutting evidence that the accident was due to misconduct. In a non-fatal case, the injured workman is in a position to contest the evidence of his employer, on whom lies the onus of proof that the injury was actually due to specific misconduct. Industrial Diseases. . The provisions relating to compensation for industrial disease have seldom been invoked, and the Government of India have utilised the power to schedule further industrial diseases on only one occasion when they added * Mercury poisoning or its sequelae ”. This disease, however, was added, not because it was prevalent in India, but in order to meet the requirements of an International Convention. Whilst we do not think that the incidence of industrial diseases is high, they are probably more common than is generally realised and more varied than Schedule III of the Act would suggest. We have had brought to our notice some evidence of industrial dermatitis and chrome poisoning and we believe that certain industrial diseases such as anthrax are to be met with and that only a proportion of these cases are ever seen by a medical officer. This is largely due to failure on the part of the worker either to seek medical treatment or to seek treatment from a doctor experienced in diagnosing such diseases. It is probable also that, under present condi- tions, industrial diseases are frequently unrecognised, and that others will be discovered when investigations are carried out. In these circumstances, we consider that the matter deserves more attention than it has hitherto receiv- ed. We have dealt elsewhere with industrial diseases generally, and recommended the method which Government should adopt in order to obtain further information concerning their incidence. In the meantime employees may be placed at a disadvantage if certain diseases are omit- bed, whilst employers may be involved in litigation based on untrust- worthy medical evidence, if wide additions are made to the existing Schedule before necessary investigations are made into the whole subject. We therefore recommend two additions to Schedule TTI. These are

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