Employers Must Split Workers? Comp Costs for Forklift Incident

A forklift operator backed up the forklift and struck a worker, injuring his foot. The WCB ruled that 25% of the workers’ comp costs related to the worker’s injury claim should be allocated to his employer and 75% to the forklift operator’s employer, who appealed. The Appeals Commission upheld the allocation. The forklift operator was primarily responsible for the incident and should’ve visually confirmed that the worker wasn’t in his path before backing up. But the worker should’ve been paying more attention and not ignored the forklift’s backup alarm [2015-0573 (Re), [2015] CanLII 48040 (AB WCAC), Aug. 6, 2015].