Here at Tana, we get business owners asking about EPLI quite often. It is a fairly new coverage in the insurance industry, but how we see it, it is crucial to any business owner.

Employment practices liability insurance provides coverage to employers against claims made by employees alleging discrimination (based on sex, race, age or disability, for example), wrongful termination, harassment and other employment-related issues, such as failure to promote

In today’s world, this coverage can really help and cover you when it comes to handling employees. We see stories all the time of employees getting fired due to poor work ethic, or not doing their job properly and the employee has gone back and sued the employer for discrimination of some sort, or wrongful termination. It happens all the time, and employers are having to pay hefty legal costs.

EPLI provides protection against many kinds of employee lawsuits, including claims of:

• Sexual harassment
• Discrimination
• Wrongful termination
• Breach of employment contract
  Negligent evaluation
• Failure to employ or promote
• Wrongful discipline
• Deprivation of career opportunity
• Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
• Mismanagement of employee benefit plans

The cost of insuring your business for EPLI coverage depends on a variety of factors, such as the number of people you employ, if you’ve had prior suits lodged against the company, the percentage of employee turnover, and if you have established rules and practices in place.

One other great feature within the Employment practices liability policy is they have a hotline number and online support where you can obtain free legal advice on what steps to take when considering terminating an employee or any questions relating to hiring, racism, harassment or how employment laws apply to your workplace.

To prevent employee lawsuits, educate your managers and employees so that you minimize problems in the first place:

Create effective hiring and screening programs to avoid discrimination in hiring.
Post corporate policies throughout the workplace and place them in employee handbooks so policies are clear to everyone.
Show employees what steps to take if they are the object of sexual harassment or discrimination by a supervisor. Make sure supervisors know where the company stands on what behaviors are not permissible.
Document everything that occurs and the steps your company is taking to prevent and solve employee disputes.

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