[PUBLIC LAW 208-77TH CONGRESS] [CHAPTER 357-1ST SESSION] [S. 1642] AN ACT To provide compensation for disability or death resulting from injury to persons employed at military, air, and naval bases acquired by the United States from foreign countries, and on lands occupied or used by the United States for military or naval purposes outside the continental limits of the United States, including Alaska, Guantanamo, and the Philippine Islands, but excluding the Canal Zone, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That except as herein modified, the provisions of the Act entitled "Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act", approved March 4, 1927 (44 Stat. 1424), as amended, and as the same may be amended hereafter, shall apply in respect to the injury or death of any employee engaged in any employment at any military, air, or naval base acquired after January 1, 1940, by the United States from any foreign government or any lands occupied or used by the United States for military or naval purposes in any Territory or possession outside the continental United States, including Alaska, Guantanamo, and the Philippine Islands, but excluding the Canal Zone, irrespective of the place where the injury or death occurs. SEC. 2. (a) That the minimum limit on weekly compensation for disability, established by section 6 (b), and the minimum limit on the average weekly wages on which death benefits are to be computed, established by section 9 (e), of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, approved March 4, 1927 (44 Stat. 1424), as amended, shall not apply in computing compensation and death benefits under this Act. (b) Compensation for permanent total or permanent partial disability under section 8 (c) (21) of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, or for death under this Act to aliens and nonnationals of the United States not residents of the United States or Canada shall be in the same amount as provided for residents, except that dependents in any foreign country shall be limited to surviving wife and child or children, or if there be no surviving wife or child or children, to surviving father or mother whom the employee has supported, either wholly or in part, for the period of one year immediately prior to the date of the injury, and except that the United States Employees' Compensation Commission may, at its option or upon the application of the insurance carrier shall, commute all future installments of compensation to be paid to such aliens or nonnationals of the United States by paying or causing to be paid to them one-half of the commuted amount of such future installments of compensation as determined by the Commission. SEC. 3. (a) The United States Employees' Compensation Commission is authorized to extend compensation districts established under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, approved March 4, 1927 (44 Stat. 1424), or to establish new compensation districts, to include any area to which this Act applies; and to assign to each such district one or more deputy commissioners, as the Commission may deem necessary. (b) Judicial proceedings provided under sections 18 and 21 of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act in respect to a compensation order made pursuant to this Act shall be instituted in the United States district court of the judicial district wherein is located the office of the deputy commissioner whose compensation order is involved if his office is located in a judicial district, and if not so located, such judicial proceedings shall be instituted in the judicial district nearest the base at which the injury or death occurs. SEC. 4. This Act shall not apply in respect to the injury or death of (1) an employee subject to the provisions of the Act entitled "An Act to provide compensation for employees of the United States suffering injuries while in the performance of their duties, and for other purposes", approved September 7, 1916 (39 Stat. 742), as amended; (2) an employee engaged in agriculture, domestic service, or any employment that is casual and not in the usual course of the trade, business, or profession of the employer; and (3) a master or member of a crew of any vessel. Approved, August 16, 1941. [PUBLIC LAW 237-77TH CONGRESS] [CHAPTER 391-1ST SESSION] [H. R. 4660] AN ACT To amend the Act entitled "An Act to provide aid for needy blind persons of the District of Columbia and authorizing appropriations therefor", approved August 24, 1935. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 5 of the Act entitled "An Act to provide aid for needy blind persons of the District of Columbia and authorizing appropriations therefor", approved August 24, 1935, be, and the same is hereby, amended by inserting at the end of said section the following: "On the death of a recipient of aid under this Act such reasonable funeral expenses as the Board or its designated agency may deem necessary may be paid for the burial of such person and such funeral expenses so paid may be recovered in the same manner as provided in sections 11 and 12 for the recovery of amounts expended as aid." [PUBLIC LAW 271-77TH CONGRESS] [H. R. 5202] AN ACT To amend an Act entitled "An Act to protect the lives and health and morals of women and minor workers in the District of Columbia, and to establish a Minimum Wage Board, and define its powers and duties, and to provide for the fixing of minimum wages for such workers, and for other purposes", approved September 19, 1918. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That an Act entitled "An Act to protect the lives and health and morals of women and minor workers in the District of Columbia, and to establish a Minimum Wage Board, and define its powers and duties, and to provide for the fixing of minimum wages for such workers, and for other purposes", approved September 19, 1918, is hereby amended as follows: The name of the "Minimum Wage Board" created by said Act is hereby changed to "Minimum Wage and Industrial Safety Board". SEC. 2. Sections 1 to 23, inclusive, of said Act are hereby designated "TITLE I-MINIMUM WAGES". SEC. 3. Immediately after Section 23 of said Act the following is added: "TITLE II-INDUSTRIAL SAFETY "SEC. 1. The purpose of this title is to foster, promote, and develop the safety of wage earners of the District of Columbia in relation to their working conditions. "SEC. 2. When used in this title, the following words shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly requires otherwise: "(a) 'Employer' includes every person, firm, corporation, partnership, stock association, agent, manager, representative, or foreman, or other persons having control or custody of any industrial employment, place of employment, or of any employee. It shall not include the District of Columbia or any instrumentality thereof, or the United States or any instrumentality thereof. "(b) 'Board' means the Minimum Wage and Industrial Safety Board. "(c) 'Safe' and 'safety' as applied to an employment, a device, or a place of employment, including facilities of sanitation and hygiene, mean such freedom from danger to life or health of employees as circumstances reasonably permit, and shall not be given restrictive interpretation so as to exclude any mitigation or prevention of a specific danger. "(d) Place of employment' means any place where industrial employment is carried on: Provided, however, That such term shall not include the premises of any Federal or District of Columbia establishment, except to include any and all work of whatever nature being performed by an independent contractor for the United States Government or any instrumentality thereof or the District of Columbia or any instrumentality thereof. "SEC. 3. The Board, in addition to its duties defined in title I shall administer the provisions of this title and shall have power to make such inspections and investigations as it may deem necessary; collect and compile statistical information; require employers to keep their places of employment reasonably safe; require employers to keep such records as it may deem advisable and to furnish the Board with complete, detailed reports relative to all accidents; determine and fix reasonable standards of safety in employment, places of employment, in the use of devices and safeguards, and in the use of practices, means, methods, operations, and processes of employment; promulgate general rules and regulations based upon such standards and fix the minimum safety requirements which shall be complied with by employers within the purview of this title. "SEC. 4. Before any rules or regulations of the Board shall become effective a public hearing shall be held by the Board for the purpose of investigating reasonable standards of safety in employment, places of employment, in the use of devices and safeguards, and in the use of practices, means, methods, operations, and processes of employment, and any person interested in the matter being investigated may appear and testify. If, after investigation, the Board is of the opinion that minimum standards of safety requirements are necessary to protect or safeguard the lives or health of employees covered by this title, it may adopt and promulgate such rules and regulations as it may deem advisable, which shall become effective thirty days after they have been published at least once in two of the daily newspapers of general circulation in the District of Columbia. "SEC. 5. Any member of the Board shall have power to administer oaths and the Board may require by subpena the attendance and testimony of witnesses, the production of all books, registers, and other evidence relative to any matters under investigation, at any public hearing, or at any session or any conference held by the Board. In case of disobedience to a subpena the Board may invoke the aid of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence. In the case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpena, the court may issue an order requiring appearance before the Board, the production of documentary evidence and the giving of evidence touching the matter in question, and any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by such court as a contempt thereof. "SEC. 6. The Board may, upon written application of any employer affected by such rule or regulation, permit variations from any provisions thereof if it shall find that the application of such provision would result in unnecessary hardship or practical difficulty: Provided, however, That the Board shall keep a properly indexed record of all variations permitted from any rule or regulation which shall be open to public inspection. "SEC. 7. The Board is hereby authorized to employ a Director of Industrial Safety, who shall not be a member of the Board and whose compensation shall be fixed in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923, as amended. The Director shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the Board in administering the provisions of this title. |