Fulbright Fellowship

ILR doctoral candidate Jeff Hilgert has won a Fulbright fellowship.

He will research Canadian labor and employment laws which protect the right to refuse unsafe work and compare them to legal protections offered in the United States.

Hilgert is one of 17 students nationally to receive a Fulbright award to Canada.  The prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program is an international education exchange program established by Congress in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to study an important human rights issue," he said.

Here, despite dozens of laws protecting the right to refuse, few workers – other than some represented by unions – are able to exercise their legal right to refuse, Hilgert said.  The burden of enforcement rests on individuals, but "most can't even hire a lawyer," he said.

Hilgert will be based at McGill University in Montréal while he collects case law and interviews work health and safety advocates.  The research will be used in his dissertation.

Canadian right to refuse unsafe work laws are considered strong and have been used as a model in drafting international labor standards, Hilgert said.

The International Labour Organization estimates more than two million people die annually from work-related injuries and illnesses.

He saw the impact of work-related injuries and illnesses when he worked in a community center for unemployed and low income workers for five years in northern Minnesota.

"It drove people into poverty," Hilgert said.

In the United States, workplace-related death is estimated to be the eighth leading cause of mortality, between diabetes and suicide, he said.

According to the International Labour Organization, job-related accidents and illnesses are rising globally and government policies protecting worker safety are slipping, Hilgert said.  Death from work-related diseases now outpaces fatal accidents by four to one.

The right to refuse unsafe work has become an international labor and human rights issue, he said.  More than 50 nations, including China, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, have signed an ILO treaty on health and safety which supports workers’ right to refuse unsafe work.

As the use of chemicals and other workplace health hazards has grown, different types of workers are seeking protection against workplace hazards, Hilgert said.

"The right to refuse unsafe work is no longer the exclusive domain of what are considered the traditionally dangerous occupations like underground coal mining or seafaring," he said in his fellowship proposal.

"The right to refuse unsafe work today is claimed by health care workers, journalists, truck drivers, high school teachers and prison guards, as well as farmworkers, construction workers, night-shift retail clerks and front-line social workers," Hilgert said.

Hilgert has completed four years of doctoral study at ILR.  His Ph.D. committee is chaired by James Gross and includes Clete Daniel and Lowell Turner.