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Does employee negligence bar workers' compensation benefits?While performing maintenance on a press, instead of using a ladder to get to the top of the press, an employee climbed up the side of the press, slipped on oil and injured his back. The Arbitrator allowed compensation. He held that however negligent the claimant might have been in doing his job, that negligence did not remove him from the scope of his employment or the protections of the Workers’ Compensation Act. In order to remove the claimant from the protection of the Act, his actions must have been committed intentionally, with knowledge that they were likely to result in serious injury, or with a wanton disregard of the probable consequences. On appeal, the Court said that there is no evidence in this case that the manner in which the claimant was performing his work was either intentional or rose to the level of willful and wanton conduct. Even though the claimant was doing his job in a negligent manner, the Court held that, under the facts of this case, he could recover worker’s compensation benefits. This decision reaffirms the principle that workers’ compensation is a no-fault system of benefits. |
