All UK workers have certain legally-enforced employment rights. If an employee feels that their legal rights have been violated, then they may make a claim against their employers. Employment practices & liability insurance covers businesses against such claims.
What Does Employment Practices & Liability Insurance Cover?
The UK government has many laws in place to ensure that employees are treated fairly. Examples include the Employment Act 2002, The Disability Discrimination Act, and the Equality Act. Under these acts, and many similar acts, employees have enforceable rights if they’re treated unfairly – or even if they just believe they’ve been treated unfairly.
If an employee makes a claim against you, it could end up in court, and they may be due compensation. In this case, employment practices & liability insurance can cover your legal fees, as well as any settlement the employee might require.
Here are just some of the things that an employment practices & liability insurance policy might cover:
- Sexual harassment and discrimination allegations.
- Unfair dismissal.
- Breach of contract.
- Denial of sick-leave or sick-pay.
- Data breaches.
- Refusal of maternity or paternity leave or pay.
What’s The Difference Between Employment Practices & Liability Insurance and Employer’s Liability Insurance?
As we’ve seen, employment practices & liability insurance covers employers for claims that they’ve breached certain employment rights. Employer’s liability insurance, on the other hand, covers compensation costs and legal fees if an employee or ex-employee makes a claim for bodily injury they’ve sustained through their work.
Do I Need Employer’s Liability Insurance?
All UK employers have a legal responsibility to get employer’s liability insurance. Head here to read our full guide to employer’s liability insurance. Our guide explains what this sort of insurance covers, what it doesn’t cover, along with other information regarding claims and excesses.
What Other Types of Insurance Should Employers Get?
Employer’s liability insurance will cover you for accidents and injuries involving staff members. It won’t cover you for accidents involving clients, customers, and members of the public. For this you’d need public liability insurance.
All business owners should also consider getting directors and officers insurance cover. This will cover you for any claims made against your business’s directors and officers for alleged wrongful acts. This might include claims of negligence, errors or omissions, breach of duty, breach of trust, misrepresentation or misstatement, and defamatory statements, libel, and slander.
Head here to read more about directors and officers insurance.
The specific type of cover you need will depend on who you are and what you do as a business. So head here to read our full guide to the sort of insurance products that are available for business owners.
Do I Need Insurance as an Employer?
Employer’s liability insurance is one of the few insurance products that all business owners must acquire, as it’s required by UK law. The law says that your employer’s liability insurance policy must cover you for at least £5 million, and it must come from an authorised insurer. Head here to read a full guide to the legal side of employer’s liability insurance.
Beyond this, you have no legal requirements to get any insurance policies. But the business world is unpredictable. Anything could happen any day. Insurance provides an essential safety net, guaranteeing that you’ll be able to survive almost any situation. And the more cover you have, the more situations you’ll be equipped to face.
Take employment practices & liability insurance, for example. You might think you don’t need it, as HR can surely handle any disagreements with employees. But what if they can’t? Would you be able to afford the legal fees and the settlement costs? Or would they sink you?
That’s why businesses invest in insurance. It’s the sort of thing they acquire hoping that they’ll never need it. But should they ever need to make a claim, they’re invariably glad they took the trouble to get insured in the first place!
Specialist Insurance Cover for Businesses of All Sizes from 35p a Day
We offer specialist insurance cover tailored to suit the needs of businesses of all sizes. Our cover starts at 35p a day with no hidden fees, and you can get a free quote online in minutes.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your options please contact the Tapoly team at info@tapoly.com, call our help line on +44(0)207 846 0108 or try our chat on our website.