The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-08
CLAIMS GROUP
 INSURANCE IS
 GOOD BUSINESS
Plan Benefits Both Workers and Their Employ
 CTS

 meeting of the Wisconsin Manufac- turers Association in Milwaukee in February, Percy B. Pope, manager of the labor department of the Pfster 6 Vogel Leather Company, delivered an address on Group insurance which was considered so valuable that the Maryland Assurance Corporation has had it reprinted in pamphlet form The statement of a manufacturer on this subject is of more interest than one by a representative of an in- surance company, as the manufac- turer looks at the subject from the | standpoint of the interest of himself and his employees, and not the amount of premiums the insurance will pro- | duce.
 Having outlined the old relations l between employer and employe, when | they knew each other personally and i were friends, he said that the lave rage workman today is recognized by l the average representative of the general manager or owner. as simply l a single unit of the production ma chine. The workman resents this at titude; he wishes to be appreciated, recognized as a man, not as number or a machine.'' Employers, wishing for a closer relationship between workmen and the management, have given much attention to group in Surance. MT. Pope merely explained what the group life insurance policy is and devoted most of his attention to group non n-occupational accident and health insurance. He said the ave rage worker loses eleven days year by sickness and six days by accidents not covered by the compensation laws. This loss of time, with at I tendant increased expenses, puts many a workman behind. Many man has lost his grip and been made unfit to take his place in the ranks because of getting into debt | through sickness or accident said | the speaker. Workmen's compensa- | tion takes care of in ndustria1 accidents, 1 but until comparatively recently ave rage employers concerned themselves | but little about employees after they l left the shop. Of late a realization of the great cost of labor turnover and in many instances a real heart felt interest in their employees vel fare' have caused employers to inter est themselves in the employees twen- ty-four hours a day.
 MT. Pope stated that employees do not welcome gratuities, and he there fore prefers to have the cost of group non-occupatio accident and health insurance borne equally by employer and employe. While approaching the social benefits of shop mutual benefit associations, he believes insurance in a, stock company is preferable to that in one of these societies, and many of the large societies have recently ! reinsured in standard companies l Coupled with group life insurance l 41,I t17n Y-I-r11 3 twenty-four hours a day.
 The speaker summarized the bene- fits derived by the employer in re- turn for the money he expendS fol such insurance as follows:
 First, he becomes a partner witt his employe on a fifty-f1fty basis 1T | furnishing protection for the man anc his family in their greatest need. H. | not only becomes a partner with hi enploye with whom he is a.lread. | more or less acquainted, but he be l comes a personal factor in the em 1 ploye's family at a time when it vii be most appreciated. The nurse, docto or representative of the compan. carrying the weekly check to tn home of the sick emp1oye is, you ma be sure. a very welcome friend.
 '%Second, believe it has a direc effect on turnover. Every human be ing has a certain amount of apprecia ton, and when this man who ha been sick or injured is ready to com back to work he will naturally g back and his family will also help | send him back to the company whic showed enough interest in him 1 visit and help him in his time need.
 Third, it is also a check on al senteeism, the most expensive fte next to turnover. The man, and e pecia11y the foreigner or the colore man, nearly always gives sickness
 his excuse for being absent. He seen
 to learn to speak that one word sic
 quicker than any other word in u
 English language. We do not get tf
 excuse so often now that they reali
 the nurse or the doctor will be on t
 job.
 ''F'ourth, it also assists in tracing
 man up, for both the insurance col
 pany as well as the employer is
 terested in locating the absentee.
 Fifth, it also prevents a man fire
 returning to work before he shot
 come, and thereby often causing } lapse after serious sickness, and the same time brings him back the job without unnecessary loss time. for he realizes that his bent
 
 physician says he may return
 work.
 Sixth, it gives the company D
 tecting their employees in this mann
 a decided advantage over those "
 are not doing it, for you may be s'
 the friends and neighbors of the s
 man will. know all the we
 Iy check, the visits 0. e compar g doctor and nurse.
 5 And, finally, it affords an opp |, tunity to assist man at time t '- may be a crisis in his career wh "a an act or a word may either m
 or break him.
 - '.As see it, group non-occupati
 al accident and health insurance
 simply a good business proposit
 and the returns from the immed
 expenditure will come back to us E fewer applications for aid, and a unfinished number of occupants in various charity institutions throu
 out the State.''
 WEEKEND RALLY.