by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Employment Practices Liablity, GDI Insurance, Human Resources
The Importance of Employee Practices Liability Insurance
California business leaders make decisions each day on a range of issues including things like hiring, firing, compensation, promotions and the work environment. Every one of these decisions impacts your employees and, depending on the outcome, could result in a claim related to wrongful employment practices. Protect your business with California employment practices liability insurance.
These claims can disrupt business, hurt morale, damage your reputation and lead to serious financial damages. Thankfully, employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) can provide organizations with protection from the above risks.
Specifically, EPLI insurance provides the following to policyholders:
Coverage for Alleged Acts
EPL insurance not only protects organizations from actual wrongful acts, but alleged acts as well. Specifically, Employment Practices Liability Insurance coverage can safeguard an organization from claims related to discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination.
Timely Response to Lawsuits
Employees suing their employers is common, and organization will want to be prepared. This is especially important when you consider that there is no cap on how much a jury can award that settlements in employment-related cases can easily reach six figures.
Access to Legal Help
Strong EPLI policies provide the insured with access to legal resources. This can prove invaluable if you need advice quickly.
Risk Management Strategies
While employment-related lawsuits can arise at any time, organizations that take the time to implement basic risk controls are better equipped to avoid claims altogether. Many insurance companies provide access to risk management training and human resources consulting. These services can greatly reduce the likelihood that your company is sued by an employee.
Additional Protection for Your Directors and Officers
While directors and officers insurance (D&O) can defend against employment-related lawsuits, dedicated EPLI insurance is necessary for many organizations. Having a policy that provides separate coverage for lawsuits connected to wrongful terminations, discrimination, invasion of privacy and similar employment claims ensures that the limits on your D&O policy aren’t exhausted unnecessarily.
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc is your California EPLI Specialist
Want to Learn More About EPL Insurance? We’ve got more great information on our Research Center.
Claims in California for wrongful employment practices are on the rise and often lead to business interruptions and costly claims. In order to truly protect your organization, it’s critical to get EPLI Insurnace. To learn more contact Grant Davis at 1-888-991-2929. GDI Insurance Agency Inc. can help protect your business from costly employee-related lawsuits.
by Grant Davis | Human Resources, Insurance
Keep Your Employee Handbook Updated
Especially in California, every company, regardless of industry and size, should have an employee handbook to help guide their employees’ behavior and protect them from potential lawsuits such as a wrongful termination. Make sure these important policies are included in every employee handbook. GDI Insurance Agency Inc. has built out extensive Human Resource programs that include employment handbooks, Onboarding Toolkits, and OSHA documentation, that is included for all of our clients at no additional cost.
Make Sure You Include These Items In Your Employee Handbook
- At Will Employment – Employers can destroy the at-will employment relationship through promises made in an employee handbook. Including this policy in handbook reinforces the at-will nature of employment. It should also state that the handbook is not a contract and may change at any time.
- Equal Employment Opportunity– This policy should comply with national (Title VII, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, etc.), state, and local anti-discrimination laws. Include protections based on race, religion, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, military service, and other protected categories such as marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or transgender status.
- Pay and Hours of Work – An employer’s pay practices, including when the workweek begins and ends, payroll periods, and deductions from pay, should be included. The policy should include overtime rules such as when nonexempt employees are entitled to work overtime and any pre-approval procedures that are required.
- Family and Medical Leave – Employers subject to FMLA must inform employees of their eligibility and rights under the act. Include whether employees need to exhaust paid time off before taking FMLA leave, that benefits will continue during leave, and that they may resume the same or equivalent job when they return. Also include other company requirements, such as medical certification or notice requirements, and any applicable state and local leave rules.
- Safety – The safety section of the handbook should affirm the company’s commitment to their employees to provide a safe and healthy work environment. It will vary by industry, but it should align with the OSHA requirements that apply to the company, including health and safety policies, emergency preparedness plans, and equipment safety and use guidelines.
- Attendance and Tardiness – Employers may use a range of procedures for attendance, but it’s important to lay out the company’s guidelines and expectations for how much notice is required, who to report absences or tardiness to, and disciplinary actions that may be taken if procedures are not followed.
- Standard of Conduct – Employees look to the organization to provide them with the “rules of the road” for workplace behavior. Policies should include organizational rules to help employees understand what is expected of them while at work and what behaviors may result in disciplinary action.
- Anti-Harassment – This policy should be comprehensive, effective, and realistic. It should define harassment, set forth avenues for reporting it up through the executive level or board of directors if the boss is the alleged harasser, and offer a degree of confidentiality and support. It also needs to include an anti-retaliation
statement. It’s important this policy reach beyond sexual harassment to include people in every protected category.
- Internet and Electronic Communication – A well-drafted policy reminds employees that company computers and networks exist for business purposes and not for personal activities. It should clearly state that there is no expectation of privacy on work computers and security is not guaranteed.
- Military Leave – This policy should inform employees of their right to unpaid military leave under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, including their right to elect to continue health plan coverage for up to 24 months.
GDI Insurance Agency Inc. Your Trusted Insurance Broker
Learn how you can offer your company the protection of a fully compliant, federal and state handbook. Contact us today at 1-888-991-2929.
by Matthew Davis MBA, CPCU, AAI | Business Insurance, Cyber Liability, Insurance
Internet-related liabilities are present whether your company simply has e-mail or is actively involved in e-commerce. Do you have the appropriate e-liability insurance coverage?
Who Needs a Cyber Liability Plan or E-Liability Insurance? Almost EVERYONE!
Assumptions have been made that a traditional comprehensive Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy will afford you coverage for business interruption, intellectual property damage and similar losses. And because “property damage,” covered under CGL policies, has been traditionally defined as a physical injury to tangible property, some courts have even ruled that “physical loss or damage” includes computer-information related losses. Insurers are avoiding liability by including specific exclusions and requiring endorsements for this coverage.
However, insurance carriers are now becoming savvy in the technology industry. Product offerings are greater. We are seeing a plethora of cyber insurance and e-liability insurance products. Knowing the ins and outs of each product will be key in proper policy selection. That’s where GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. can assist you, providing its expertise so you have the appropriate coverage to match your risk management needs.
What is Cyber Liability Insurance?
Cyber liability coverage may include an e-comprehensive policy. This policy may cover losses caused by fraudulent modification, accidental alteration or destruction to all electronically stored information. In addition, losses caused by malicious copying of trade secrets, extortion and introduction of a virus could be covered.
Media liability addresses the losses associated with libel, slander, and invasion of privacy and infringement of copyrights.
This may be needed, especially if your employees are given access to e-mail capabilities and Internet access. E-mail is an essential tool of today’s fast-paced business culture. However, messages taken out of context may cause difficulty. Establish an e-mail usage policy and educate employees on the proper use of e-mails and surfing the Net.
Defend against loss or damage caused by viruses with specialty computer virus transmission coverage. Along these lines, there is unauthorized access and use coverage, which insures against losses when third party information is stolen.
Each carrier’s Internet-related insurance products need to be closely scrutinized to determine what they will and will not cover, and who will pay the defense expenses.
Your company may also be entitled to rehabilitation expenses to re-establish your reputation and market share after a loss.
One other detail that we look at is whether the policy itself is a claims made or an occurrence policy. Claims made policies will only cover losses that are made and reported during that policy period. If this is the case, an extended reporting period (ERP) may need to be negotiated.
E-commerce presents today’s risk managers with new challenges—this brochure only scratches the surface. To ensure the success of your e-commerce initiatives, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. recommends a comprehensive risk assessment be conducted to identify potential gaps and inappropriate levels of coverage.
Contact GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. to further discuss your e-liability insurance and the products available to minimize your risk. 1-209-634-2929
by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Construction, GDI Insurance, Human Resources, Insurance
Contractors Insurance Program
I always tell my clients, remember this, is it if you’re using your insurance, something already has gone terribly wrong. If your contractual transfers are incorrect, that’s if you’re the developer, you didn’t transfer it on down to your subcontractors or if you’re a subcontractor, you took on more responsibility than you should have and you’re in trouble now. Find out more on our Contractors Insurance Program!
You can buy general liability insurance, or builders risk insurance or workers compensation insurance and get just that. Or you can call GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. and get the entire package of insurance policies and benefits we have put together to assure your construction business isn’t just insured, but assured they have the right coverage, at the lowest rates with all the compliance needed. From OSHA Safety programs, to up to date HR systems with live attorneys to answer questions.
It Starts With Being Safe
There’s a lot to this so we’ve got to remember, it starts with being safe on the job site. Safety, human resource, wellness plans, property and liability, transfers and protection, we can help you with all of that. This is just the tip of the iceberg here.
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. has volumes and volumes of material to help contractors secure their business. Everything you could imagine for contractors. GDI Insurance spends a lot of time working with developers and subcontractors and their attorneys. We help them with the indemnification clauses, letters for certificates of insurance and proper Additional insured statuses. From certificate tracking programs and management, additional insured contract reading, the insurance service office ISO has a lot of variations of additional insured and a lot of people will say, “Oh, this is an equivalent to the 1185 which we’re all looking for.” If it’s equivalent to, why don’t they just use the same wording, right?
You build a quality house, my clients all build quality houses and we try to make sure that the contractual transfers are done properly. Either way, I represent subcontractors, and I represent developers, and I represent commercial developers, and commercial property owners, sub contractors, solar installers and heavy iron workers, the whole shot,
I am happy to help you. If you also look at all the companies we have, no one has any better rates, no one has any companies we don’t have, so it’s really a matter of just trying to stay out of trouble in the first place. Smaller and fewer claims is the ticket.
Call and ask for Grant Davis 888-991-2929 at GDI Insurance Agency, Inc.
I am your construction expert and I can help! I hope you got the information you needed. By the way, if you want something else, just ask me. Call Grant Davis, whether you’re our client or not. I will do what I can to help you.
If you’re not our client, we’ll give a couple of things to help you out. If you’re looking for an employee manual or a safety manual, no problem, we’ll just give it to you and you’re good to go. We do ask you to be our client because if you would like full OSHA compliance, your 300 logs and all of that, we do all of that for free for our clients as part of our Contractors Insurance Program.
Thanks a lot for reading this. Call me anytime Grant Davis GDI 1-888-991-2929.
by Grant Davis | Construction, GDI Insurance, Insurance, Solar Installers
Insurance for the Solar Panel Industry
Solar Panels are all over. How do you insure a solar panel, or a contractor that installs solar panels? What about a solar panel farm? Solar panel insurance offers this specific protection.
Solar Panel Insurance GDI 888-991-2929
With the focus on developing clean energy sources, new alternative energy facilities are popping up all across North America and are predicted to increase exponentially in the next decade. One of the least intrusive and most cost effective is solar energy. Solar cell manufacturing costs continue to fall and output efficiency continues to improve.
GDI Insurance Agency works has developed a competitive clean & green Solar Energy Insurance Coverage program to meet the needs of photovoltaic solar panel “farms,” with new features for more complete recovery.
What’s New with Solar?
- We have addressed the need for specialized valuation of solar array components;
- Additional insurance is provided for a greener approach to debris recycling;
- The opportunity to upgrade to a greener replacement when it is desirable;
- We even cover the incurred cost of an extended warranty or maintenance contract, if it becomes void due to a covered loss.
What about Tax credits?
- The tax credits/ financial incentives can be critical to your client’s profit. And, now there is a simple Solar Business Income Worksheet to help the client capture and quantify these items for Business Income Coverage.
Any other Business Income Coverage special features?
- When the client also purchases optional Ordinance or Law coverage, there is an extension of time if it is required to comply with an ordinance or law;
- And, our business income coverage includes loss arising out of a covered loss to property in transit, an important coverage when insuring the installation phase.
Are other optional coverages available?
- Equipment Breakdown Coverage, Ordinance or Law, Inflation Protection, Contingent Coverage on Leased Solar Arrays, as well as Flood and Earthquake at eligible locations.
- Coverage is available from day one of the installation project well into the future, when the solar array is providing clean power to the end user.
There is a lot that needs to be done differently than “normal insurance” to properly cover a solar farm, or contractor installing solar systems.
Matthew Davis, MBA, CPCU, AAI
