Employer's Liability

What is Employer’s Liability insurance?

Employer’s Liability insurance covers you for damages which you are legally liable to pay due to death, injury or illness of any employee which occurred while doing activities for the business. On this platform, cover is offered on a claims made basis – a claims made basis covers claims that are made and reported during the time that you hold this policy and will not cover you once you are no longer paying for this policy (even if the event occurred while you had this policy).

If you are looking for cover for employment practices’ liability (e.g. lawsuits for unfair dismissals), we do not currently offer that on this website. Please contact us and we’ll be able to assist.

How will Employer’s Liability insurance protect my business?

Your insurance policy will have its own specific list of insured events and exclusions, so it is best to check with your insurer or the policy wording to confirm the details of your Employer’s Liability insurance policy.

Some commonly covered and not covered items include:

What is usually not included? 

• Any business carried on by the insured at or from premises or any contract for the performance of work outside the Republic of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi
• Damages in respect of judgements delivered or obtained in a court of competent jurisdiction outside the countries mentioned above
• Liability assumed by the insured
• Liability for disease or impairment
• Fines, penalties, punitive, exemplary or vindictive damages
• Costs and expenses of litigation recovered by any claimant from the Insured
• Any claim arising from an event known which is not reported to the Company or before the start of your insurance cover
• Claims made 48 months after an event (relevant if this cover is cancelled)

Could this happen to my business?

Employee accidents

• A pipe, that an employee was working next to, burst and injured the employee.
• An employee working on a building site slipped and fell from the second storey.
• While offloading merchandise, an employee tripped and broke her arm.

Illness

• An employee took an IT business to court after claiming that consistent extended hours had led to carpal tunnel syndrome.

Factors affecting your premium

Generally, the higher the level of risk that your business is exposed to, the higher the cost of the premium.

• Number of past claims: the more claims you have had in the past, the higher your premium
• Retroactive cover: if you take cover for the past, then you will pay a higher premium.
• Number of employees: the more employees you have, the higher the risk.
• Occupation: certain occupations are at higher risk than others of having Employer’s Liability claims.
• Company turnover: the higher the company turnover, the higher the premium.