Lost-Time Injury Rates: A Marxist Critique of Workers' Compensation Systems

246 Pages·2022·1.97 MB·English

by  Rodrigo Finkelstein

Lost- Time Injury Rates: A Marxist Critique of Workers’ Compensation Systems
Studies in Critical Social Sciences

Series Editor
David Fasenfest
(Wayne State University)
volume 216
New Scholarship in
Political Economy
Series Editors
David Fasenfest
(Wayne State University)
Alfredo Saad- Filho
(King’s College London)
Editorial Board
Kevin B. Anderson (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Tom Brass (formerly of sps, University of Cambridge)
Raju Das (York University)
Ben Fine ((emeritus) soas University of London)
Jayati Ghosh (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Elizabeth Hill (University of Sydney)
Dan Krier (iowa State University)
Lauren Langman (Loyola University Chicago)
Valentine Moghadam (Northeastern University)
David N. Smith (University of Kansas)
Susanne Soederberg (Queen’s University)
Aylin Topal (Middle East Technical University)
Fiona Tregenna (University of Johannesburg)
Matt Vidal (Loughborough University London)
Michelle Williams (University of the Witwatersrand)
volume 17
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/n spe
Lost- Time Injury Rates:

A Marxist Critique of Workers’
Compensation Systems
By
Rodrigo Finkelstein
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data

Names: Finkelstein, Rodrigo, author.
Title: Lost- time injury rates: a Marxist critique of workers’ compensation
systems / by Rodrigo Finkelstein.
Description: Leiden; Boston: Brill, [2022] | Series: New scholarship in
political economy, 2666- 2205; volume 17 | Includes bibliographical
references and index. | Summary: “In Lost- Time Injury Rates Rodrigo
Finkelstein examines the information- intensive operations of recording
and processing work- related accidents, diseases and fatalities carried
out by Workers’ Compensation Systems. Situated within the field of
political economy of information, this critique contributes to the
understanding of how injury rates service a specific sector of the
economy by constructing lost labour power for sale. The central argument
of this critique can be stated as follows: grounded in the capitalist
mode of production, injury rates constitute an historical social
relation that, by taking the semblance of inductive indicators, conceal
specific capitalist relations that bring about the exchange and
distribution of lost labour power among capitalists and wage
labourers”– Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: lccn 2022002351 (print) | lccn 2022002352 (ebook) |
isbn 9789004507111 (hardback; alk. paper) | isbn 9789004509689 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Workers’ compensation. | Industrial accidents. | Labor. |
Marxist economics.
Classification: lcc HD7103.6 .F56 2022 (print) | lcc HD7103.6 (ebook) |
ddc 368.4/ 1– dc23/ eng/ 20220126
lc record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2022002351
lc ebook record available at https:// lccn.loc.gov/ 2022002352
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/b rill- typeface.
issn 2666- 2205
isbn 978- 90- 04- 50711- 1 (hardback)
isbn 978- 90- 04- 50968- 9 (e- book)
Copyright 2022 by Rodrigo Finkelstein. Published by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink,
Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau and V&R unipress.
Koninklijke Brill nv reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for
re-use and/ or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill nv via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid- free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents

A cknowledgements ix
L ist of Figures and Tables x
1 O verview 1
1 I ntroduction 1
2 M y Encounter with Injury Rates 2
3 I njury Rates as a Collection of Inductive Indicators 3
4 H ow to Approach Injury Rates 5
5 T heoretical Contribution 9
6 O utline of the Successive Chapters 12
2 P reconditions 17
1 I ntroduction 17
2 F irst Precondition: Wage Labour 18
3 S econd Precondition: The Conflict between the Forces of Production
and the Relations of Production 24
4 T hird Precondition: A Burgeoning Capitalist Class 31
5 F ourth Precondition: Statistics and Probability 35
6 F ifth Precondition: Money 39
7 S ixth Precondition: A Capitalist State 41
3 I nsurance Boards
The Landlords of the Circuit of Metamorphosis of Lost Labour Power 48
1 I ntroduction 48
2 I nsurance Boards as Part of the Information Sector 49
2.1 R isk as Expected Lost Labour Power 50
2.2 R isk as Information 55
2.2.1 Risk as Class Information 56
2.2.2 Risk as Lost- Time Injury Rates 58
2.2.3 Risk as an Informational Medium of Measurement
and Monetization 61
2.2.4 Risk as an Informational Medium of Exchange 65
3 T he Informational Landlords of the Circuit of Metamorphosis of Lost
Labour Power 70
3.1 S tages of the Circuit of Metamorphosis of Lost Labour
Power 72
3.1.1 The First Stage: C – M 74
vi Contents
3.1.2 The Second Stage: M – I 77
3.1.3 The Third Stage: I – MW 79
4 T he Lost-L abour- Power Commodity 82
1 I ntroduction 82
2 T he Commodity 83
3 T he Information Commodity 84
4 T he Lost- Labour- Power Commodity 87
4.1 T he Satisfaction of Needs as a Means of Production 88
4.2 U se Value 90
4.3 E xchange Value 92
4.4 V alue 94
4.5 V alue and Lost Value: The Transformation of
Non- equivalents 101
5 T he Commodification of Lost Labour Power 104
5.1 T he Working-D ay- Lost Moment 106
5.2 T he Reporting Moment 108
5.3 T he Recording Moment 110
5.4 T he Processing Moment 112
5.5 T he Programing Moment 115
5 T he Fetishism of the Lost- Labour- Power Commodity 119
1 I ntroduction 119
2 F etishism and Lost Labour Power 120
3 T he Fetishism of the Lost- Labour- Power Commodity 124
4 T he Value Fluctuation of the Commodity 127
4.1 P rocedurally Hidden Social Relations 129
4.1.1 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of Working
Days Lost 129
4.1.2 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of Reported
Injury Claims 131
4.1.3 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of Deeming
Injury Claims 133
4.1.4 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of Rate-
Setting Mechanics 137
4.2 S tructurally Hidden Social Relations 140
4.2.1 V alue Fluctuation Due to a Movement of the Wage-
Labour Market 140
Contents vii
4.2.2 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of the
Economic Activity 144
4.2.3 Value Fluctuation Due to a Movement of
Cost- Shifting 147
5 T he Relative Value and Price Fluctuation of the Commodity 150
5.1 C lass- Hidden Social Relations 152
5.1.1 Relative Value and Price Fluctuation Due to a
Movement of Misreporting and Underreporting
Injury Claims 156
5.1.2 Relative Value and Price Fluctuation Due to a
Movement of Appealing Legitimate Claims 161
5.1.3 Relative Value and Price Fluctuation Due to a
Movement of Managed Care 164
5.1.4 Relative Value and Price Fluctuation Due to a
Movement of Early- Return- to- Work Practices 167
5.1.5 Relative Value and Price Fluctuation Due to
a Movement of Vocational Rehabilitation
Interventions 170
6 L essons from the Social Totality 176
1 I ntroduction 176
2 U nderstanding Lost- Time Injury Rates as a Historical Socioeconomic
Formation 177
2.1 L ost- Time Injury Rates as a Class Relation of Exchange and
Distribution 177
2.2 L ost- Time Injury Rates Belong to Capital 180
2.3 L ost Labour Power as Multiple Forms of Value 186
2.4 T he Lost- Labour- Power Commodity Is Not the Bearer of Lost
Value 194
2.5 L ost- Time Injury Rates Do Not Provide Accurate
Information 200
2.6 L ost- Time Injury Rates as a Structural Epistemological
Ideology 206
3 C oda: The Solidification between Oppressor and Oppressed 212
R eferences 215
I ndex 225

Acknowledgements

This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation. It is the product
of my six- year Ph.D. research at the School of Communication, Simon Fraser
University. However, the topic of this book germinated a bit earlier. It came
about in 2011 after my forced resignation from a workers’ compensation board
due to my zeal in ensuring prevention and compensation benefits to my fel-
low workers as the president of the Joint Health and Safety Committee. This
book is thus the amalgamation of my righteous indignation and my intellec-
tual inquisitiveness. It aims to advance social justice as well as to lay bare the
information- intensive operations of Workers’ Compensation Systems in their
capacity to underallocate compensation benefits and underrepresent work
injuries.
I owe my most intellectual debt to the work of Karl Marx. This book is
firmly grounded in Marx’s historical materialism, materialist dialectics and
socio- economic theoretical framework. I argue that only Marxian political
economy offers an adequate theoretical foundation for the understanding of
Workers’ Compensation Systems in capitalist societies. Also, I am intellectually
indebted to the work of critical political economists of information/c ommu-
nication who have applied Marxist theory to the information sector. Among
them, I owe much to Dallas Smythe and Vincent Mosco.
Aside from acknowledging my intellectual debts, I must express my grati-
tude to my Ph.D. supervisor Enda Brophy. I am also very grateful to Katherine
Reilly for her criticism of and suggestions for many sections of my work. My
thanks to John Calvert for introducing me to the Centre for Research on Work
Disability Policy and serving on my doctoral committee. I am also very thank-
ful to Robert Cahill for his careful copy editing.
I wish to thank the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy for
their financial support and their many activities that were paramount to my
research. The provincial forums, cluster working meetings and partner/s take-
holder meetings were priceless experiences. I am grateful to the student fel-
lows and all the people at the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy
for accompanying me during this academic journey and the many ways they
provided help. Thank you Andrea Jones, Piotr Majkowski, Mary Catharine
Breadner, Kathy Padkapayeva, Sabrina Imam, Dan Samosh, Steve Mantis,
Mieke Koehoorn, Emile Tompa, Ellen MacEachen, and John Calvert.
Finally, many thanks to the people involved at Brill. This book would not be
in its current form were it not for the editors of this series: David Fasenfest and
Alfredo Saad- Filho.
Figures and Tables

Figures
1 S tages of the circuit of metamorphosis 74
2 T he commodity’s value 195
Tables
1 A udience commodity 85
2 C ontent commodity 86
3 I nsurance boards’ commodity 87