Businesses are three times more likely to be sued by their employees than experiencing a fire. Over the last 20 years, cases of employees suing their own company rose around 400%. These lawsuits are only common to small businesses that have poor management. Right? No! Not even the biggest companies are immune to this.
Even the proud oil and gas industries are vulnerable to these kinds of situations.
Gender Discrimination in the Oil and Gas Industry
As you can probably imagine, there is not a lot of females in the oil and gas industry. On average, there are only 14.5% of females working in that industry compared to the number of men.
In August of 2019, a woman who worked for a refinery in Oakland, California filed for a gender discrimination lawsuit. This lawsuit was against two of her supervisors. She claimed that these supervisors continuously said sexist comments to her for months.
After the tedious and costly trials, the jury awarded the plaintiff was awarded $475,000 for damages. Because of this win, more women are eager to fight these discriminations. In addition, if your employees do not behave properly, costly trouble might just be looming in the corner.
What other issues should I be aware of?
Microsoft has many employees. However, did you know that 40% of EPLI claims are brought against companies with less than 100 employees? Therefore, chances are, you are mostly like to encounter one of these claims soon:
- Wrongful termination
- Sexual harassment
- Invasion of privacy
- Mismanaging benefits
- Breaching employment contracts
These claims cannot be covered by general liability insurance. Instead, you should opt for employment practices liability insurance. This insurance can cover the claims listed above.
Most Common Scenarios
Here ae common EPLI scenarios of different industries.
- Contractor. An employee for the building contractor-requested his boss for sick leave. The company did not allow this. This illness worsened, causing the employee to miss work for several days. The contractor fired him for his absences and the employee sued them for it. The claim was from the violation of the Americans with Diabetes act. The lawsuit settled for $74,000. (Disability discrimination)
- Machine shop. An officer worker informed her boss she was pregnant. Two months later, she was fired. She was told that her condition prevented the attendance and performance of duties. EEOC filed a lawsuit on her behalf and settles the lawsuit for $35,000. (Pregnancy Discrimination)
- Oilrig worker. A worker was denied the time to attend religious services. He was fired after complaining. This lawsuit was settled for $75,000. ( Religious Discrimination and Retaliation)
As you can see, employees cans sue you for things you may have not even thought of. These lawsuits are more common than you think. In 2018, the EEOC fielded over 200,000 inquiries of potential discrimination claims. Not just that, the average cost of settling out of court for these types of claims is $75,000. Moreover, the average jury award for an employment-related case is $217,000.
Best EPLI companies
Despite all these scary facts, only 3 out of 10 businesses buy EPLI. This could be a very expensive mistake. If you do not want to gamble $75,000 or $217,000 of lawsuit costs per employee, you should consider these three EPLI companies.
- The Hartford – The Hartford offers EPLI as part of a management liability package. It comes with five other optional coverages. (Crime insurance, fiduciary liability, directors and officers, cyber liability, and kidnap coverage)
- Am Trust – This is the perfect EPLI insurance company for smaller companies. They offer quality EPLI packages that are affordable.
- Allstate – This company is perfect for small business owners with limited EPLI exposure.
There are more trusted insurances out there for EPLI. It does not really matter what insurance provider you choose. You can get the best suitable benefits for you if you use a reliable COI tracker.