Framing Law Stories: Work Health and Safety and the Self-employed Person’s Wellbeing

Abstract

The question of whether law can, or cannot, touch the territory of the wellbeing of workers is steadfastly rising to the surface of the contemporary world of work. This begs exploration of whether current law provides ways to workers’ wellbeing. This article explores whether the self-duties that the self-employed person owes herself under sub-sections 19(5) and 28(a) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011(NSW) (‘WHSA’) touch her wellbeing at work. The WHSA is the state’s adoption of the Model Work Health and Safety Act. In adopting the methodology of legal narratology ( Olson 2014 ), this article unframes grand narratives of law and wellbeing and renders a collection of micro narratives which emerged from the law stories told by seven self-employed persons juxtaposed with the story the WHSA tells of itself. The research has been conducted in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. The article draws upon four law stories which frame the interpretations that: (1) the self-employed person must ensure, and take reasonable care for, his or her own physical and psychological wellbeing and safety, while wellbeing unlimited from that definition lies in law’s lacunae; (2) the self-employed person must ensure the provision of adequate facilities for her wellbeing at work and the maintenance of those facilities, while an intentional by-product of discharging health and safety duties is wellbeing beyond liability; (3) the self-employed person may, or may not, promote wellbeing in discharging her self-duties ( Tooma 2020 ); and (4) a desire for law in the self’s wellbeing appeals to law beyond the WHSA. The article ultimately invites the reader’s own interpretations of the ineffable, sometimes called wellbeing.