Does Your Organization Have A Respectful Workplace Policy?
In his article entitled Protect your employees and your business with a respectful workplace policy, Matthew Both, of Davis LLP, encourages developing a formal respectful workplace policy to help avoid or limit potential liability from employee claims. Having a respectful workplace policy is an excellent risk management recommendation and a respectful workplace policy is likely a human resources policy many Canadian employers don`t currently have in place. To further protect your business from costly employment claims like, sexual harassment, harassment, discrimination etc, ALIGNED Insurance brokers encourages it clients and prospects to purchase Employment Practice Liability (EPL) Insurance.
Q: What is Employment Practices Liability (EPL) / Wrongful Dismissal Insurance?
A: Employment Practices Liability (EPL) / Wrongful Dismissal Insurance is protection against allegations of errors and omissions and “wrong doing” in the management and administration of human resources (HR), it can be best described as a “HR malpractice policy”.
Employment Practices Liability (EPL) Insurance is specifically designed to respond to specific employment exposures including:
- Wrongful dismissal
- Sexual harassment
- Constructive dismissal
- Employment related misrepresentation
- Discrimination
- Breach of oral or written employment contract
- Wrongful failure to employ or promote
- Wrongful discipline
- Invasion of privacy
- Wrongful demotion
- Defamation
- Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
- Wrongful deprivation of a career opportunity
Employment Practices Liability (EPL) Insurance Claims That Having A Respectful Workplace Policy Can Help Avoid
In addition to the potential damage to the reputation of the company employment related claims are costly as confirmed by the Chubb Insurance Company of Canada Private Company Survey Some notable findings were that the average cost of an EPL claims has doubled since 2007 and now sits at $122,000 and the highest reported claim came is a shocking $5,000,000.
Below is a summary of the largest losses reported broken into various sizes of organizations:
| Employee Count | Largest Loss Reported |
| 25 to 49 | $350,000 |
| 50 to 99 | $400,000 |
| 100 to 249 | $5,000,000 |
| 250+ | $100,000 |
To learn more about Employment Practice Liability (EPL) Insurance, developing a respectful workplace policy and/or other HR policies which can help mitigate risk and limit potential liability for your organization speak to an ALIGNED Insurance broker or connect with us at www.alignedinsuranceinc.com
| ALIGNED Across Canada 100% Canadian owned, ALIGNED is a premiere insurance brokerage that serves more than 1,400 clients across the country. ALIGNED’s offices in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver are supported by a national operations centre in Cambridge, Ontario. Uniquely within the industry, ALIGNED creates, negotiates and delivers the best business insurance and risk management strategies/solutions to organizations like yours. |
