Hay River (July 12/04) - The Workers' Compensation Board of the NWT and Nunavut is proposing to reward some safe employers, while penalizing unsafe ones.

The so-called experience rating program is among a number of changes being proposed for the WCB system.

It would affect large employers paying over $40,000 of annual assessment. Those that have good compensation claims histories and good safety practices would receive refunds, while those that don't would be penalized.

That program would have included 99 employers if it had been in place this year. An average refund of $15,000 would have been given to 47, while an average penalty of $18,000 would have been imposed on 38. Fourteen would have received neither a refund nor a penalty.

"Those numbers are what-ifs," said Donna Allen, vice-president of NWT operations with the WCB, at a public information session in Hay River on July 7.

Vivian Stevely, the chair of the 10-employee Family Support Centre in Hay River, would like to see the experience rating program expanded.

"There is nothing to recognize small employers with good safety records," Stevely noted.

The experience rating program could possibly be implemented in 2006.