The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada Labour Across Borders

Workplace injuries are common, avoidable, and unacceptable. The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada reveals how employers and governments engage in ineffective injury prevention efforts, intervening only when necessary to maintain the standard legitimacy. Barnetson sheds light on this faulty system, highlighting the way in which employers create dangerous work environments while they pour billions of dollars into compensation and treatment. Examining this dynamic clarifies the way in which production costs are passed on to workers in the form of workplace injuries. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 14 Introduction......Page 16 Perspectives on workplace injury......Page 17 Purpose of this book......Page 19 Preventing workplace injury......Page 20 Compensating workplace injury......Page 21 Major conclusions......Page 23 ONE: Employment Relationships in Canada......Page 26 The labour market and the wage-rate bargain......Page 27 The labour process and the wage-effort bargain......Page 28 Power and rules in employment......Page 29 The common law......Page 30 Changing definitions of work......Page 33 Workplace safety and the profit motive......Page 34 Compensation through the courts......Page 35 Alternatives to litigation......Page 37 Do employers intentionally transfer costs?......Page 38 Conclusion......Page 39 TWO: Preventing Workplace Injury......Page 42 Perspectives on risk......Page 43 Market model of occupational health and safety......Page 44 Inevitability and the careless worker......Page 45 The social construction of accidents......Page 47 The Factory Acts......Page 49 Injury compensation......Page 50 Why workers’ compensation?......Page 51 Partial self-regulation......Page 53 Hoggs Hollow and Elliot Lake......Page 54 The external responsibility system......Page 55 The internal responsibility system......Page 56 Duties and obligations......Page 57 Health and safety standards......Page 58 External responsibility system......Page 59 Partnership model and incentives......Page 60 Conclusion......Page 61 THREE: Critique of OHS in Canada......Page 62 How many injuries?......Page 63 Who gets hurt affects injury recognition......Page 64 The type of injury and its cost also affect recognition......Page 65 The social construction of injury and hazards......Page 66 Employer tactics in contesting injury recognition......Page 67 Perpetuating the careless worker myth......Page 68 Identifying occupational cancer......Page 69 Preventing occupational cancer......Page 70 Constructing cancer as a non-issue......Page 71 Conceptual models of injury......Page 72 Limits to the biomedical model......Page 73 Approaches to regulation......Page 74 Limits on regulation......Page 75 The internal responsibility system......Page 76 Knowledge is power?......Page 77 Joint health and safety committees......Page 78 The right to refuse......Page 80 Employer responses to refusals......Page 81 Effectiveness of the internal system......Page 82 Exposure levels and threshold limit values......Page 83 Are exposure levels safe?......Page 84 Why do exposure levels always go down?......Page 85 Inspections and inspectors......Page 86 The effect of orders......Page 88 Prosecution and fines......Page 89 Partnerships and the mantra of “safety pays”......Page 91 Creating evidence of safe workplaces......Page 93 Disabling injury rate and severity......Page 95 Measures as conceptual technologies......Page 97 Why use inadequate measures?......Page 98 Conclusion......Page 100 Context of state action......Page 104 Inadequate standards......Page 106 Ignorant and reckless?......Page 108 Social sanction of workplace injury......Page 109 Ineffective penalties......Page 110 Why regulate ineffectively?......Page 112 How is this legitimized?......Page 113 Injury in the new economy......Page 114 Work intensification......Page 115 Precarious employment increases risks......Page 116 What do intensification and precarious employment tell us?......Page 117 Conclusion......Page 118 FIVE: Compensation of Workplace Injury......Page 120 Overview of workers’ compensation......Page 121 Development of workers’ compensation in Canada......Page 122 Workers’ compensation as a compromise......Page 124 Determining compensability......Page 126 Balance of probabilities and presumptions......Page 128 Politics of injury recognition......Page 129 Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and causation......Page 131 Occupational diseases......Page 133 Limiting liability: Psychological injuries......Page 134 Chronic pain syndrome......Page 136 Conclusion......Page 137 SIX: Worker Benefits and Claims Management......Page 140 Earnings-loss benefits......Page 141 Deeming earnings......Page 142 Permanent disabilities and the dual-award system......Page 143 Vocational rehabilitation and early return to work......Page 144 Is early return to work a good idea?......Page 146 The political economy of ERTW......Page 147 Medical services......Page 148 Fatalities......Page 149 Employer premiums......Page 150 Rising premiums......Page 151 Moral hazard......Page 152 Experience-rating schemes......Page 154 Effect of experience rating on injury frequency......Page 155 Effect of experience rating on injury duration......Page 156 Rationale for experience rating......Page 157 Conclusion......Page 158 SEVEN: Managing Workers via Injury Compensation......Page 160 Claim adjudication and administration......Page 162 Mobilizing workers......Page 163 Role of trade unions......Page 164 Appeals......Page 165 Internal reviews and external appeals......Page 166 How appeal processes advantage employers......Page 167 Adversarialism in appeals......Page 168 Political economy of appeals......Page 169 Impact on workers......Page 171 Privatization and abolishment......Page 172 Operation of tort-based compensation......Page 173 Comparing tort and workers’ compensation......Page 175 Privatization......Page 176 Who chooses the insurer?......Page 177 Cost savings under privatization......Page 178 Economic globalization as an explanation......Page 180 Managing worker demands......Page 181 Precarious work......Page 182 Precarious work and worker-related injuries......Page 184 Implications of precarious work for workers’ compensation......Page 185 Conclusion......Page 186 EIGHT: Conclusion......Page 188 Why are workers injured on the job?......Page 189 Why don’t government injury-prevention efforts work?......Page 190 Do governments actually prioritize profit over safety?......Page 191 Why don’t workers call “hooey” on this approach?......Page 192 Can workers protect themselves?......Page 193 But how does government legitimize prioritizing profit over safety?......Page 194 Who benefits from injury compensation? And how?......Page 196 Occupational disease as a microcosm......Page 197 So what?......Page 199 Are workers our most valuable resource?......Page 200 The political economy of workplace injury......Page 201 Notes......Page 204 Select Bibliography......Page 274 E......Page 280 P......Page 281 W......Page 282 Workplace injuries are common, avoidable, and unacceptable. The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada reveals how employers and governments engage in ineffective injury prevention efforts, intervening only when necessary to maintain the standard legitimacy. Dr. Bob Barnetson sheds light on this faulty system, highlighting the way in which employers create dangerous work environments yet pour billions of dollars into compensation and treatment. Examining this dynamic clarifies the way in which production costs are passed on to workers in the form of workplace injuries