News

Employment and school accidents compensation effective from January 1st

December 28, 2018 4:45 pm

Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum [left] and ACCF Chief Executive, Parvez Akbar

All workers will be entitled to compensation for injuries and deaths arising out of or in the course of employment.

This will come into effect from January 1st 2019.

This also includes students who will also be compensated for accidents occurring on any school premises, on a no-fault basis by the Accident Compensation Commission.

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Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says funding for the workers compensation scheme will be sourced from the one percent Fiji National University levy, which employers need to keep paying.

“So it’s a huge reduction of burden in particular for small businesses – who have to go out and take workers compensation insurance. Forty percent of that now will go towards the ACCF compensation for workers. Also by law too, if example a person gets injured at work and may need to stay away from work for a period of time but will come back – in that period of time – they will still need to be paid two thirds of their salaries and in that particular incident, employers will have to pay that.”

The AG says compensation for schools will also allow them to do a stock take, to see which schools are more prone to injuries so that safety measures can be taken.

“I recall about eighteen months ago, there was a particular injury where a young men was accidently stabbed with a pencil in the eye. The eye got damaged. We have those kind of injuries that do take place. Those injures will also be covered now and of course those injures will need to be reported to the Permanent Secretary of Education and ACCF.”

ACCF Chief Executive, Parvez Akbar says compensation for employment and school accidents will be operated under the broader Accident Act 2017, which ranges from $75,000 to $150,000.