Employment Practices Liability Insurance

By Juliette Mignone, CPSR

Does your business have employees? What happens if one of your employees or prospective employees alleges discrimination or harassment?

If you’re a new company with 1-4 employees or a large corporation with more than 100 employees, you should be thinking about Employment Practices Liability Insurance (ELPI). Regardless of the number of employees you have, this coverage is important due to the current business environment being so lawsuit conscious.

From the moment you start the pre-employment process until well after the exit interview, your business is vulnerable to lawsuits. It only takes one employee to claim an employment-related problem. EPLI helps protect you and your business with legal issues like discrimination, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and wrongful discipline. Some policies can even include coverage for things like not paying proper overtime.

When your business hires, fires or manages staff, it can be held liable for claims alleging wrongful acts even when those actions are unintentional. Even when your business wins a case, the legal costs, which can be very high, are still incurred. EPLI coverage can help with those expenses. While every business can be sued, the most common industries that suffer EPLI-type claims are healthcare, professional services, retail operations, manufacturing, and hospitality/restaurants. Take EPLI into consideration because you never know when your business will be targeted by a disgruntled employee.

Contact us today for more information.