Now more than ever, business owners need to buy Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI) to cover charges from employees/volunteers for unfair pay, wrongful termination, sexual harassment, failure to employ or promote, and for discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, religion, age and disabilities. An employment practice claim is any action arising from the employer-employee/volunteer relationship where the employee/volunteer believes the employer has wronged him or her.
Employment-related claims are one of the fastest growing sources of insurance claims by businesses with fewer than 100 employees. There were 95,402 charges of discrimination at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2008 representing an increase of 15.2% over 2007. The financial ramifications of not having EPL insurance can be crippling, especially for small nonprofits because they do not have the operating budgets to handle the defense costs, let alone settlements or judgments, of an uninsured claim. The medium cost of an EEOC lawsuit in 2006 exceeded $200,000.
Don’t be fooled in thinking you have coverage. There is no EPL coverage under other insurance policies such as General Liability. So what can you do to make sure you are protected? Contact Sharon Bender, Account Manager, today to discuss your options and complete an application. It’s that easy!
Insurance protection against employee claims is as much a necessity today as your regular business liability policy. The only problem is that it contains more fine print. And your agent’s most important job is to know and understand the fine print!