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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XVI. - Workmen's compensation

Collection:: Economics Books

219 CHAPTER XVI, that preliminary proceedings of the kind suggested (which have an ana- logy in other classes of cases) should impair the confidence of any party in the impartiality of the Commissioner in any subsequent contested proceedings between the employer and the dependants ; but if the sugges- tion we have made earlier of appointing additional Commissioners js adopt- ed, another tribunal would be available to which subsequent proceedings could be transferred if necessary. It should be added, however, that if the Act is extended to any large extent to unorganised branches of industry, there may be difficulty in enforcing these provisions in such branches. In the case of fatal accidents to seamen on the high seas, shipping masters should transmit to the Commissioner concerned copies of the report made to them under the Merchant Shipping Act. Tt is also possible, and in our opinion desirable, to introduce simpli- fications in procedure which will benefit dependants and others claiming compensation without prejudicing employers. As the Act stands at present, a dependant claiming compensation must approach the employer first and endeavour to secure agreement with him. But, as the Government of India have pointed out, the employer is obliged to pay the compensation to the Commissioner, and the dependant cannot make any binding agreement with the employer. Weagree; therefore, that it should not be necessary for the dependant to approach the employer, 4.e., that in fatal accidents the claim may be preferred at once to the Commissioner Notice of Accidents. Further, the provisions regarding notice are unduly stringent in their terms. We think it a wise provision that notices must be written but in other directions some relaxation is desirable. It is true that the Commissioner has wide powers to dispense with the necessity of a notice ; but there are a number of cases in which no notice is really necessary and some of these might be specified in the Act. Thus notices should be declared to be unnecessary in fatal accidents, if the accident occurs on the employer's premises and the workman dies on any pre- mises of the employer or at the place where he was resident at the time of the accident (without having left the vicinity). Further, it should be definitely specified that, in all cases, want of notice or a defect in a notice should not bar proceedings if the employer is proved to have had knowledge of the accident from any other source at or about the time it occurred. These exceptions should not be regarded as substi- tutes for the general power of making exceptions vested in the Commissioner, which should remain as at present. We understand that, when the rules of procedure were originally drawn up, the Gov- ernment of India contemplated the possibility of requiring certain employers to maintain books for notices of accidents similar to those prescribed for certain establishments in Great Britain; but they came to the conclusion that the Act did not empower them to act in this manner. We recommend that local Governments be authoris- d by law to require the maintenance of such books by anv classes

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation