BEYOND ACCIDENT: A MODEL FOR THE COMPENSATION OF WORK- RELATED HARM IN NEW ZEALAND DAWN DUNCAN A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy FACULTY OF LAW 2019 2 ABSTRACT ___________________________________________________________ 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ________________________________________________ 13 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ______________________________________ 15 I Introduction ______________________________________________________ 15 II Background _______________________________________________________ 16 A A difficult history ________________________________________________ 17 B A scheme in need of reform _______________________________________ 18 III Proposing Reforms to Improve Cover and Work Health and Safety __________ 19 A Problem one: Gaps in cover _______________________________________ 20 B The consequences of exclusion _____________________________________ 22 C Problem two: Negative consequences for work health and safety ________ 23 D The relationship between ACC and work health and safety _____________ 25 E A labour law approach to reform __________________________________ 26 IV Contribution of this Thesis ___________________________________________ 29 CHAPTER TWO: BACKGROUND ________________________________________ 31 I Introduction ______________________________________________________ 31 II ACC and Approaches to Compensating Workers Harmed at Work ___________ 32 III New Zealand’s Workers’ Compensation Regime _________________________ 33 IV The Woodhouse Report and the ACC Scheme ___________________________ 35 V The DifficuLt Decades that FolLowed ___________________________________ 38 VI Workers’ Compensation or Social Insurance ____________________________ 39 VII A Political Compromise: An Accident Compensation Scheme _____________ 43 VIII ConcLusion _____________________________________________________ 44 CHAPTER THREE: AIMS, SCOPE AND METHOD _________________________ 47 I Introduction ______________________________________________________ 47 II An Introduction to Labour Law _______________________________________ 48 3 III Davidov’s Purposive Approach to Labour Law ___________________________ 51 A Translating Davidov’s approach in to a specific method ________________ 53 B A note on comparing labour laws across jurisdictions _________________ 55 IV ShouLd Reform of the ACC Scheme be thought of as part of Labour Law? ____ 56 V The Labour Law Aims of the Project ___________________________________ 59 A Power-based conceptions _________________________________________ 61 B Rights-based conceptions _________________________________________ 64 C Wrongs-based conceptions ________________________________________ 66 D Unequal status and dignity ________________________________________ 68 E Summarising the goals for the project _______________________________ 70 VI Improved Health and Safety- The Ends also Justify the Scope ______________ 72 A Is ACC reform the best place to seek improvements to worker health and safety? _____________________________________________________________ 74 B Why not seek to address the problems through collective bargaining? ____ 75 C Why not just enact the full Woodhouse Report vision? _________________ 77 D Why reject a torts and insurance-based solution? _____________________ 85 VII ConcLusion _____________________________________________________ 88 CHAPTER FOUR: THE PROBLEMS WITH THE CURRENT ACC COVERAGE _ 91 I Introduction ______________________________________________________ 91 II The Current Coverage of Work-ReLated Health Problems __________________ 92 A The Occupational Diseases Schedule ________________________________ 93 B Section 30 cover of gradual processes, diseases or infections ____________ 94 C The concept of occupational disease ________________________________ 96 III ParticuLar ExcLusions _______________________________________________ 98 A A particular problem for female-dominated occupations _______________ 98 B Work-related heart attack or stroke _______________________________ 100 C Mental health problems _________________________________________ 102 4 D An outdated mind/body dualism __________________________________ 103 E Work-related infections _________________________________________ 105 F Gaps as a consequence of the focus on “accident” ____________________ 108 IV The Consequences of the Gaps in Cover _______________________________ 109 A Options for workers with excluded conditions _______________________ 109 B Lack of data ___________________________________________________ 112 C A gender divide in cover _________________________________________ 115 D Māori potentially significantly affected _____________________________ 118 V Inconsistency with Health and Safety Laws ____________________________ 119 A The problem with “accident” for health and safety ___________________ 120 B “Accident” and the HSWA _______________________________________ 122 VI ConcLusion ______________________________________________________ 124 CHAPTER FIVE: THE URGENT CHALLENGES OF WORK- STRESS-RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS ________________________________________________ 125 I Introduction _____________________________________________________ 125 II The Rise of StressfuL Work in New Zealand ____________________________ 126 A The Decline of Manufacturing and the Rise of “Services” _____________ 127 III Changes to the Organisation and Management of Work __________________ 130 A The pursuit of employee engagement ______________________________ 131 B Increased demand for connection _________________________________ 132 C Work intensification ____________________________________________ 134 D Digital monitoring and surveillance ________________________________ 137 E Increasing flexibility and “precarious” work ________________________ 139 F Economic instability and vulnerability _____________________________ 142 IV The ParalLeL Rise of Stress-ReLated ILLness Research _____________________ 145 A What is stress? _________________________________________________ 145 B The human stress response _______________________________________ 146 5 C Stress and its connection to disease ________________________________ 148 V Stress and CardiovascuLar Diseases ___________________________________ 149 A Stress and heart attack __________________________________________ 150 B Work-stress and cardiovascular diseases ___________________________ 151 VI Stress and its Connection to Depression _______________________________ 153 A Stressful environments and depression _____________________________ 156 B Three organizational psychology conceptual models __________________ 157 C The interrelated role of genetics and environment ____________________ 159 VII Stress and MuscuLoskeLetal Disorders _______________________________ 161 A Lower back pain and work _______________________________________ 162 B A role for genetics ______________________________________________ 163 C “Natural” deterioration and causation _____________________________ 164 D The complexities of pain _________________________________________ 165 E Complex interrelationships _______________________________________ 168 VIII ConcLusion ____________________________________________________ 169 CHAPTER SIX: DEVELOPING A NEW APPROACH TO CAUSATION _______ 171 I Introduction _____________________________________________________ 171 II The Additional Causal ChalLenges of Chronic Health Problems ____________ 172 A Theories of causation ____________________________________________ 172 B Some of the additional uncertainties in the evidence __________________ 175 C Responding to complexity and uncertainty in the causal evidence _______ 178 III Disciplinary and CuLtural Impacts on Narratives ________________________ 180 A Culturally specific narratives _____________________________________ 184 B Māori narratives of disease causation ______________________________ 187 C Politically influenced narratives ___________________________________ 190 IV ConcLusion ______________________________________________________ 195 6 CHAPTER SEVEN: A NEW MODEL FOR THE COMPENSATION OF WORK- RELATED HARM ____________________________________________________ 197 I Introduction _____________________________________________________ 197 II A New Compensation Act ___________________________________________ 198 A Not an “Accident” Compensation Act ______________________________ 198 B A new title for the Act and a new name for the scheme ________________ 201 C New purpose sections ____________________________________________ 201 D Removal of the Occupational Diseases Schedule _____________________ 202 E The new Work-Related Harm Part purpose section __________________ 205 F New causal test _________________________________________________ 206 G New terms framing the causal narrative ____________________________ 209 III Intended Operation ________________________________________________ 211 A Examples of operation ___________________________________________ 212 Example: Worker C’s heart attack ____________________________________ 212 Example: Worker D’s severe depression ________________________________ 215 Example: Worker E’s bad back _______________________________________ 217 IV Achieving the Labour Law Goals Set _________________________________ 218 A Addressing the inequalities of bargaining power _____________________ 218 B Recognising the “wrongs” of poor health and safety __________________ 221 C Recognising the rights of workers _________________________________ 221 D Dignity and equity