TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
Burton Blatt Institute, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
J Occup Rehabil. 2017 Dec;27(4):507-519. doi: 10.1007/s10926-017-9745-7.
Socially constructed hierarchies of impairment complicate the general disadvantage experienced by workers with disabilities. Workers with a range of abilities categorized as a "disability" are likely to experience less favourable treatment at work and have their rights to work discounted by laws and institutions, as compared to workers without disabilities. Value judgments in workplace culture and local law mean that the extent of disadvantage experienced by workers with disabilities additionally will depend upon the type of impairment they have. Rather than focusing upon the extent and severity of the impairment and how society turns an impairment into a recognized disability, this article aims to critically analyse the social hierarchy of physical versus mental impairment.
Using legal doctrinal research methods, this paper analysis how Australian and Irish workers' compensation and negligence laws regard workers with mental injuries and impairments as less deserving of compensation and protection than like workers who have physical and sensory injuries or impairments.
This research finds that workers who acquire and manifest mental injuries and impairments at work are less able to obtain compensation and protection than workers who have developed physical and sensory injuries of equal or lesser severity. Organizational cultures and governmental laws and policies that treat workers less favourably because they have mental injuries and impairments perpetuates unfair and artificial hierarchies of disability attributes.
We conclude that these "sanist" attitudes undermine equal access to compensation for workplace injury as prohibited by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
社会构建的残疾等级制度使残疾工人所面临的普遍劣势更加复杂。与非残疾工人相比，被归类为“残疾”的各种能力的工人在工作中可能会受到更不利的待遇，他们的工作权利也会受到法律和制度的限制。工作场所文化和地方法律中的价值判断意味着，残疾工人所经历的不利程度还将取决于他们所患有的残疾类型。本文的目的不是关注残疾的程度和严重程度，以及社会如何将残疾认定为一种公认的残疾，而是批判性地分析身体残疾和精神残疾之间的社会等级制度。
本文采用法律教义研究方法，分析澳大利亚和爱尔兰的工人赔偿和过失法如何看待患有精神损伤和残疾的工人，认为他们不如那些患有身体和感官损伤或残疾的类似工人更值得赔偿和保护。
这项研究发现，在工作中患上和表现出精神损伤和残疾的工人，比那些患有同等或更轻微的身体和感官损伤的工人，更难以获得赔偿和保护。对待因精神损伤和残疾而处境不利的工人的组织文化以及政府法律和政策，使残疾属性的不公平和人为等级制度得以延续。
我们的结论是，这些“歧视性”态度破坏了《联合国残疾人权利公约》所禁止的平等获得工作场所伤害赔偿的机会。
