16 July 2008

NDU Release: Less and not more competition needed for Accident Compensation says union

The National Distribution Union says that less, and not more competition, is needed in the management of Accident Compensation for workplace accidents.

“More than one independent report has shown ACC performs well in comparison to private sector provision in other countries. Where large employers contract out their ACC management already we see buck-passing and risk shifting. Members’ dissatisfaction is much greater with the private managers than the publicly owned Accident Compensation Corporation,” said NDU National Secretary Laila Harré in response to National’s policy to investigate opening the Work Account to competition.

“Savings achieved through cutting services to workers who have lost earnings, mobility and life quality through workplace accidents are not savings. They are a shameful breach of the social contract that saw workers give away the right to bankrupt employers who were at fault in favour a lower level of universal compensation,”she said.

“We’d question the competence of any reviewer who found that sharing premium incomes with the overseas owners of insurance companies was a good way to spend our precious ACC dollars.”

ENDS

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