Businesses that employ people are responsible for the health and safety of their employees while they are at work. Your employees may be injured at work or they, or your former employees, might become ill on account of their work while in your employment. They might attempt to claim compensation from yourself whenever they consider you are responsible.
The Employers? Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 demands you have at least a minimum degree of insurance coverage against any such claims. The minimum level of coverage is a limit of indemnity of 5 million pounds and even though this is the required minimum actually insurance companies usually offer a normal limit of 10 million pounds under contracts. Increased levels are available from insurance companies upon demand and this is often driven by an employer recognising the potential for claims in excess of the regular 10 million pound limit.
In order to comply with the legal requirements of the Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, the cover must be underwritten and issued by an Authorised insurer. If it’s not you might be breaking the law. You ought to confirm your insurer is authorised before you take out employers? liability coverage. Authorised insurers are individuals or companies working under the terms of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Employers liability insurance is designed to cover the insured in respect of claims made against them for their legal liability for personal injuries or illness sustained by employees in the course of their employment. As such it can pay out any compensation awards which might be made in favour of employees and will also pay for the legal costs of the policyholder’s defence.
In view of the legal obligation to carry the cover and the truth that it is considered in the public interest for businesses that employ people to carry valid insurance as it enables injured employees to be compensated by an insurance policy instead of being dependent upon the state, you will find almost no restrictions to be found upon the policy cover under the contract.
The insurer cannot refuse to pay compensation purely because:
The policyholder has not offered reasonable protection for its workers against injury or disease
The business has not kept particular records or cannot provide the insurance company with data from those records
The employer has done something they were told not to do for instance an admission of liability
The business has not done something they were told to do such as reporting the incident
The employer has not met any legal obligation connected with the protection of the employees.
As a business insurance policy, employers liability insurance differs from most other business insurance policies in that it is not normally available as a stand-alone insurance. Insurance companies over time have determined that the cover ought to be offered alongside other insurances for the client like public liability cover or as part of an entire range of business insurance or as a part of a package cover such as office insurance or retail cover. Whilst this is accepted practice it is actually quite hard to establish the explanation why insurance companies hold this view.
Quotations for employers liability insurance are extensively available from a number of specialist liability insurance agents and other vendors with immediate on line quotations being available on the internet.
Blackfriars is a specialist liability insurance broker and commercial insurance specialist providing an professional service in the arrangement of liability insurance for a wide range of trades and professions including highly competitive arrangements for employers liability insurancefor employers and businesses.