The first compensation payments for this financial year to injured workers and dependents of deceased workers whose deaths are directly related to their employment were given out today by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
For this financial year, the Government has allocated $1.2 million for compensation payments. Speaking at the event at Civic Centre today, Bainimarama says out of that $1.2 million, they are today paying $494,000 to settle 24 cases which include injuries and 7 deaths.
He says today they honour the first group of recipients.
Bainimarama says under the Accident Compensation Scheme, compensation is more inclusive, extending to all victims of employment accidents, not only Government workers.
He says over the past 12 months, the Accident Compensation Commission Fiji has paid $1.7 million in compensation to workers from across different sectors.
Bainimarama says it is a sad fact that people sometimes suffer injury or death while working.
He says sometimes it is because their jobs carry known risks, but other times through freak accidents, or someone’s negligence, or by contracting a disease, or due to natural disasters.
Bainimarama says they are also committed to making sure that compensation is given fairly according to reasonable and rational standards.
The Prime Minister says the Ministry of Employment has engaged the services of an Australian occupational medicine consultant to train more than 200 medical assessors. He says these assessors have the training and experience to assess each person’s case to determine their degree of permanent disability or to provide medical opinions on the degree to which an individual’s death was caused by conditions at work or related to work. Bainimarama says we can’t have a situation in which compensation is seen as arbitrary or inconsistent.
He says only those doctors who have undergone the Impairment Assessment Training are allowed to conduct final medical assessments. Bainimarama further says over the last five years, the Government has paid out approximately $8.75 million as compensation to workers and dependents of government workers.
