Tuesday 29 May 2012

Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance

By Sirius Grant


Businesses that employ people are responsible for the health and safety of their workers while they are at work. The employees might be injured at work or they, or your past employees, might become ill as a result of their work while in your employment. They might attempt to claim compensation from you whenever they think you are responsible.

The Employers? Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 demands you have at least a minimum degree of insurance coverage against any such losses. The minimum level of coverage is a limit of indemnity of 5 million pounds and even though that is the required minimum in reality insurance companies generally offer a normal limit of 10 million pounds under policies. Higher levels are available from insurance companies upon request and this is usually driven by an employer recognising the potential for losses exceeding the normal 10 million pound limit.

In an effort 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 could be breaking the law. You ought to check that your insurer is authorised before you purchase 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 requirement to carry the cover and the fact that it is considered in the public interest for businesses that employ people to carry suitable insurance because it enables injured employees to become compensated by an insurance policy rather than being reliant upon the state, there are almost no limitations to be found upon the policy cover under the policy.

The insurer cannot refuse to pay compensation purely because:

The policyholder has not provided reasonable protection for its workers against injuries or disease

The business has not kept particular records or cannot provide the insurance company with data from those records

The business has done something they were told not to do for example an admission of responsibility

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 their employees.

As a commercial insurance cover, employers liability insurance differs from most other business insurance contracts in that it isn't normally available as a stand-alone policy. Insurance companies over time have determined that the cover needs to be offered alongside other insurances for that client such as public liability cover or as part of an entire range of business insurance or as a part of a package contract such as office insurance or shop insurance. Even though this is conventional practice it is really quite hard to establish the explanation why insurance companies take this view.

Quotations for employers liability coverage are extensively available from a variety of specialist liability insurance brokers and other providers with instant on line quotes being available across the web.




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