Top 10 Reasons to Buy EPL Insurance

Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) is a hot button issue in the insurance world these days. Dealing with things like harassment, wrongful termination, hostile workplaces, abuse at work, etc., employers are finding it harder and harder to comply with the multitude of federal employment laws while also meticulously controlling the workplace environment and psychically analyzing the hiring process to prevent hiring the new crop of employees looking to file frivolous lawsuits against their employers. EPLI will help you protect yourself in a court of law and will assist in hiring practices, employee handbook reviews, legal advice when dealing with a disgruntled employee, etc. In addition to the aforementioned benefits, here are the TOP 10 reasons why you should consider this line of protection for your business:

1.)  EPL covers not only actual but also alleged acts of discrimination,
harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination and other similar acts.

2.)  3 out of 5 employers are sued by former employees every year.

3.)  Over 40% of EPL claims are against firms with fewer than 100 employees.

4.)  Some Federal and State employment laws apply to all employers – any size
company has exposure!

5.)  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recorded nearly
76,000 charges in 2006 and obtained more than $274 million in settlements
for claimants.

6.)  The financial ramifications of not having EPL insurance can be crippling,
especially for small firms because they do not have the operating budgets to
handle the defense costs, let alone settlements or judgments, of an
uninsured claim.

7.)  The medium cost of an EEOC lawsuit in 2006 exceeded $200,000.

8.)  There is no EPL coverage under other insurance policies such as General
Liability (GL). Any endorsement to another policy generally provides
insufficient limits, does not provide the breadth of coverage of a separate
EPL policy and erodes the limit available for the GL exposure.

9.)  Since 1997, wage and hour litigation has tripled. More wage and hour
collective/class actions have been filed in recent years than any other types
of employment class actions combined.

10.)  Gender discrimination, age discrimination and retaliation claims are on the
rise. There are more women and “baby boomers” in the workplace than ever
before. Recent Supreme Court decisions have lowered the standard of what
constitutes retaliatory treatment

As you can see, every business is subject to this and should strongly consider adding this cost-effective layer of protection.