WIBA (Workmen Injury Benefit Act) law regards injuries that take place in the workplace.
If an employee gets injured in the course of their work, then they have a recourse under this law to seek compensation.
First port of call is the director of Occupation, Safety and Health Authority.
The employer, in this case the National Police Service Commission, has a duty to report the injury of their employee, in the work environment, to this office.
Once the report is made, the injured employee, if he has not been compensated, makes a claim to the office of OSHA, who has the first responsibility to determine the level of the injury and the compensation the employee is owed.
If the employee or the employer is dissatisfied with the decision of OSHA, then they have a second recourse, which is approaching the Employment and Labour Relations Court to seek a review of the determination.
The director was made the first port of call for injured employees to create administrative mechanism under which work-related injuries can be dealt with expeditiously and administratively without going to a court process that may be wrought with delays or judicial bottlenecks such as the costs associated with litigation.
So, if the matter can be resolved administratively by invoking the jurisdiction of the director, it was thought to give expeditious settlement of such claims.
Before the WIBA law was enacted, we used to have so many work-related injury cases, like over 100,000 of them, before courts that were causing backlog as it took a long time to hear and determine and, meanwhile, the affected employee remained in misery.
But this new mechanism stirred hope as administrative processes take a shorter time and cost less compared to court systems.
But, be it as it may, parties affected, including injured officers, still reserve the right to seek a court decree if they feel the assessment given to them by OSHA was not fair.
And given the fact that the payment does not seem to be coming in these cases, the affected employees can still seek a court decree to compel the state to expedite the process.
Constitutional lawyer spoke to the Star
