BAET 20300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Volkswagen, Moral Rights, Rights
22 Jan 2016
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Focus on relative risks faced by workers- a workplace is safe if risks are acceptable. If it can be determined that the probability of harm involved in a specific activity is equal to or less than the probability of harm from a more common activity, this activity is an acceptable risk. Ex) ppl live by toxic waste dump fear leukemia. Govt responded that fears were irrational bc relative risks in living near this dump were lower than those faced by smokers since ppl accept the risks from smoking. But you cant do anything about where you live- with smoking you can avoid it. This approach ignores employee input, assumes that health and safety are simply preferences that can be traded off, and assumes workplace risks and other risks are the same when there are actually significant differences. Classic model/free market approach: employees can bargain to choose appropriate wage based on the risks they are willing to face.
