When your company serves clients and customers, many things can go wrong. You cannot always please everyone and, besides that, you cannot foresee any event. Someone may be hurt or property may be damaged as a result of your work activity. Extreme weather may damage your work or products. Negligence may put others in danger. Countless situations can interfere with the correct proceedings and turn your expectations upside down. The worst is when you have generated discontent or fury in another. If it's your fault, they will hold you responsible for every loss they experience.
Do not worry though, there are specific insurance products to protect you in such situations. It may be inevitable to avoid claims made against you; however, you can avoid paying out compensation from your pockets.
This is where the Employer's Liability and the Public Liability insurance policies come into the picture – but which is what? Read below to learn the differences and figure out what exactly you need.
Employer's Liability explained
This refers to you as an employer. Do you hire staff of any kind? It could be even casual workers, including the unpaid ones. It does not matter – when someone work for you, if they provide a service under your company's name, then you become responsible for them. Accidents may happen on your premises or during deliveries. Harmful tools or toxic materials may jeopardise their health. Employees are not always safe and you may not be aware of every existing issue. When something bad happens, they have the right to sue you and ask for large compensatory amounts of money. To protect yourself as well as your employees at all times, you need to take out Employer's Liability Insurance.
Public Liability Insurance for businesses
This is another insurance product that businesses can greatly benefit from. It is designed to protect not only your company, but also members of the public. Be careful: its cover does not extend to your employees! For them, you need the one above. The Public Liability refers to your obligation to pay out compensation to any member of the public who suffers illness, injury or damage as a direct result of your work. Whether you work alone or you operate a large company with loads of employees, you still need this insurance policy.
Relevant examples
Let's imagine you are involved in scaffolding. If a worker drops a tool or materials, these may hurt someone or damage a property underneath. If the fall is great, meaning the height is substantial, then the damage is worse. Third parties harmed this way will hold you responsible and ask for compensation. You will then be protected by the Public Liability insurance. The same happens when clients enter your premises but they slip on a recently cleaned floor that was in no way notified. It's a different situation when your own employees are harmed. For example, your workers get sick because of prolonged exposure to the cold and require to spend several days at home or in the hospital. Or, you failed to replace old broken equipment and they got hurt while maneuvering it. You will then get help from your Employer's Liability policy. These are several situations to illustrate standard situations and the policy types to cover those.
Financial protection and peace of mind
Ultimately, the goal of any business insurance is to ensure your peace of mind and to let you continue your work, to keep on getting clients, gathering and investing money as planned. When you fail to get adequately covered, even a single small claim can turn your business upside down and ruin it financially.
No comments:
Post a Comment