Although there are exceptions, most businesses with one or more employees are legally required to take out employers’ liability insurance. But every workplace is different, which mean employers’ liability policy needs to cover against all sorts of incidents in all sorts of industries.
Here are some examples of when a business might need to make a claim on their employers’ liability insurance:
You run a cafe business
If you run a café and an employee injures themselves after slipping on some water that’s been spilled but not cleaned up, they might make a claim against you.
As an employer, it’s up to you to make sure the workplace is safe. In this instance, you could be held responsible as the spilled water wasn’t cleaned up and caused the accident. The injured employee could claim compensation costs against you as a result. You could be liable for the compensation costs and legal fees to defend this type of claim.
You’re an electrician
If you’re a spark with a young apprentice that has failed to carry out necessary safety precautions and suffers burns from an electric shock as a result.
The accident could be deemed to be your fault, for instance, if the apprentice decides to blame you by stating that you did not provide proper health and safety training. In this situation, you could be responsible for compensating the apprentice for the injury, as well as loss of earnings due to time they have had to take off work.
In both examples, the money that you need to pay could reach tens of thousands of pounds – which could easily put many SMEs out of business. These costs would be met as part of your employers’ liability policy, meaning cover could be the difference between your business carrying on or going bust.
You run a hotel
If you run a hotel, your staff might help customers take their luggage from reception to their room. If a member of staff trips on a loose bit of carpet on the stairs and injures themselves, you could be held responsible for the accident. If this is the case, you might have to pay compensation and any legal fees that arise from an injury claim.