IRA calls for effective enforcement of Workers Compensation Act
By Prossy Kisakye
The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) has called for harmonization of all insurance aspects of the Workers’ Compensation Act with other related laws to foster its effective implementation.
Specifically Section 18 of the Act makes it mandatory for all employers to insure their workers against work-related accidents and diseases incurred in the course of their employment.
According to the law, in the absence of insurance, if a worker dies in the course of their work, the employer is mandated to pay up to 60 months equivalent of the deceased’s salary to the family.
However, Protazio Sande, the Director Planning, Research and Market Development at the IRA notes that poor enforcement of the insurance aspect has continued to undermine safety of workers.
Speaking at a one-day training for news editors on coverage of the insurance sector in Entebbe on Friday, Sande partly blamed this on the fact that the enforcement mandate currently lies with the ministry of gender, labor and social development and not IRA.
He said the authority had picked interest in the law because this particular section talks about insurance.
“We want to ensure that all the insurance aspects in different laws come under one regulatory regime. If we can achieve that legal harmonization, then we shall have full force of the law to ensure compliance to the dot, not only for purposes of insurance premiums for the sector but to ensure that the common man for whom this law was intended gets the benefit”, he said.
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