Socially constructed hierarchies of impairments: The case of Australian and Irish workers' access to compensation for injuries

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This article critically analyzes the social hierarchy of physical versus mental impairment. The authors posit that a hierarchy of impairment attributes exists in law and practice that regulate the compensation available to employees who are injured at work resulting in physical and sensory versus mental disabilities. Using legal doctrinal research methods, they illustrate how Australian and Irish workers’ compensation and negligence laws regard workers with mental injuries and impairments as less deserving of compensation and protection than 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 favorably because they have mental injuries and impairments perpetuates unfair and artificial hierarchies of disability attributes. The authors 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.

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