Scourers stung by ACC levy rise

Wool scourers have emerged as one of the biggest losers from the renationalisation of ACC, with premiums up 129 per cent on what they paid privately last year.

Wool Scourers Association vice-president Jeremy Horrocks yesterday promised to fight the increase, which he said was unfair and not reflective of the current state of the industry and its safety standards.

Mr Horrocks, general manager of Whakatu Wool Scour Ltd in Hawkes Bay, said he was faced with a bill of about $55,000 for his 22 staff, up from $25,000 in the year to June 30 when the company was covered by Fusion Insurance.

Premiums with ACC in 1998, before the National Government's privatisation of workplace insurance, had been $2.76 for every $100 of wages, down from more than $5 the previous year. With Fusion they fell to $2.25 but this year under ACC they rose to $5.16.

Association president Alan Husheer said the industry was suffering because of some serious accidents in the past in plants that had closed. Injury rates at the 12 New Zealand scours had fallen and there had been no major accidents in recent years, so a review of the premium would be sought.

Employer groups, private insurers and both the National and Act parties remain unconvinced by Coalition arguments that 70 per cent of employers are better off.

Meanwhile, Accident Insurance Minister Michael Cullen has doubled to $50 million his estimate of how much employers nationwide will save under the law change.

Last week, Dr Cullen said $25 million would come off the $462 million paid in premiums under the privatised scheme in the year to June 30.

Yesterday, in a statement headed "ACC - cheaper and safer than private insurance," he gave the figure as $50 million and said further reductions were likely with good safety management programmes.

Following yesterday's Herald revelation that farmers, childcare centres and electrical contractors had been hit with large premium rises, Mr Cullen's press secretary, Jenny Michie, pointed out that several employers who had opposed the changes on the grounds it would cost them more had subsequently conceded that their premiums had dropped.

She cited Palmerston North company Click Clack - whose chief executive, John Heng, had talked of moving the business out of New Zealand - as one that had publicly acknowledged that its costs had fallen. Mr Heng was overseas and could not be reached for confirmation, but staff said the business was still there and he was returning.

One major Auckland-based employer, a vociferous opponent of the renationalisation, said his premiums had dropped markedly to less than half what he had been paying with a private insurer.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared being punished with higher premiums, he wondered whether his premiums had been manipulated down to "shut me up."

Employers Federation policy manager John Pask said the Government had made a lot of the fact that the average premium had dropped from $1.21 per $100 of wages under the private insurers last year to $1.16 under ACC, but the fall in the number of accidents across industries suggested that the average premium should have been even lower.

He doubted that 70 per cent of employers were better off.

Mr Pask said being told where to insure was "one less control you have over your business."