Employment Practices Liability and Employers Liability are two different but equally important risks which any organisation should take seriously. Here, we look why you need to look after both, and provide a helpful questionnaire to reduce your risk and loss.
Employment Practices Liability
Employment practices liability is a growing area of concern for organisations across the country and legal actions related to employment practices are a consistent risk.
Employment practices claims can be costly and time-consuming issues. What’s more, these claims pose a serious risk to an organisation’s stability, reputation, and bottom line. No organisation is immune to these exposures.
Today, employment practices liability claims can originate from legal actions related to, but not limited to:
- Wrongful dismissal
- Discrimination
- Harassment and sexual harassment
- Breach of contract
- Failure to employ or promote
- Deprivation of career opportunity
- Wrongful discipline
Thankfully, a proactive approach to risk management goes a long way towards protecting organisations from employment practices liability claims.
The included questionnaire is designed to help organisations assess how adequate their loss control programmes are by examining common employment-related exposures and the techniques, policies and procedures that can be applied to control these exposures. Remember, the best defence against employment practices liability claims is to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Employers’ Liability
Insurers will likely analyse your claims history when underwriting your employers’ liability premium. If you can help control your claims, you can lower your price.
- Investigate accidents immediately and thoroughly; take corrective action to eliminate hazards, and be aware of fraud.
- Report all claims to your insurer immediately. Alert the insurer to any serious, potentially serious, or suspect claims. Frequently monitor the status of the claim, and communicate with the adjuster to resolve them as quickly as possible.
- Take an aggressive approach to providing light duty to all injured employees upon their release from treatment. Supervise light duty employees to ensure their conformance with restrictions.
- In serious cases that involve lost time, communicate with the loss adjuster to demonstrate your interest in returning the injured employee back to gainful employment.
- Set safety performance goals for those with supervisory responsibility. Success in achieving safety goals should be used as one measure during performance appraisals.
- Develop a written safety programme, and train employees in their responsibilities for safety. Incorporate a disciplinary policy into the programme that holds employees accountable for breaking rules or rewards them for correctly following safety procedures.
- Frequently communicate with employees, both formally and informally, regarding the importance of safety.
- Make safety a priority. Senior management must be visible in the safety effort and must support improvement.
- Evaluate accident history and near-misses at least monthly. Look for trends in experience, and take corrective action on the worst problems first.
- Hire a broker to ensure success.