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Injured Workers' Experiences of the Workers' Compensation Claims Process
Institutional disrespect and the neoliberal state
Margarita Parrish
School of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences, The University of Sydney - Cumberland Campus, New South Wales
Toni Schofield
Behavioural & Community Health Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract
This paper reports on the results of a recent qualitative study of injured workers' experiences of the claims process in NSW. It provides an analysis that suggests that recent legislative amendments to improve the process have been of very limited value.
The paper argues that the obstacles to reform derive from the institutional practices associated with the day-to-day management and administration of the claims process. While these practices are informed by a corporate-rationalist administrative logic, they are enacted through intersubjective relations that involve systematic disrespect and humiliation of work-injured claimants by insurance company officials. Such practices embody the principles and techniques of an intensified neoliberal governance in the Australian state.
Keywords
workers' compensation, claims process, workers' experiences, corporate-rationalist administration, institutional practices, inter-subjective relations, disrespect and recognition
Article Text
With significant alterations to workers' compensation policies throughout Australia since the 1980s, the public management of injured workers has been transformed. Common law remedies have all but disappeared, and injured workers are obliged to return to employment as soon as practicable. Medical legitimation of injury remains fundamental but injured workers are also required, where appropriate, to participate in rehabilitation programmes to expedite their recovery and return to work.
State and Territory-based statutory authorities such as WorkCover in NSW and WorkCare in Victoria are publicly responsible for administering work injury management schemes. However, the day-to-day management of injured workers is conducted through the workers' compensation claims process that is administered by private insurance companies. They are paid a fee by governments to do so. To date, the management of the claims process throughout Australia has attracted sustained criticism (see below). This has been especially marked in relation to delays in payment to injured workers and to the imposition of significant barriers to injured workers' access to treatments and programmes associated with facilitating their return to work.
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