Open Access“Fortis Et Liber” Unless You Are a Farm Worker
Author(s) -
Bob Barnetson
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
sage open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.357
H-Index - 32
ISSN - 2158-2440
DOI - 10.1177/2158244015575632
Subject(s) - workers' compensation , framing (construction) , statutory law , business , labour economics , compensation (psychology) , political science , economics , law , social psychology , psychology , structural engineering , engineering
Precarious employment entails both a heightened risk of injury anda greater likelihood of exclusion from statutory injury-compensation schemes. Thecontrasting cases of workers’ compensation entitlements among firefighters and farmworkers in the anti-union Canadian province of Alberta provide a preliminary insightinto how issue framing can be used to gain mandatory workers’ compensation coverage forworkers. In addition to careful and timely critiques of legislator justifications,farm-worker advocates may be able to (a) generate shared framings among farm workers andfarmers by creating a credible liability threat, (b) leverage preferential workers’compensation access accorded to noncitizens into policy change, (c) challenge theconstitutionality of the exclusion, and (d) trigger a framing process among farm workersvia social media to increase pressure on legislators. These strategies offer a way toundermine the interlocking interests of farmers, politicians, and agribusiness thatconstrain efforts to achieve broad statutory inclusion of farm workers and achievegreater access to workers’ compensation benefits for them