It's hard enough to manage the financial and practical challenges
of running business every day without having to worry about dealing
with legal battles too. However, it seems to be commonplace these days
for business owners to land themselves in hot water by breaking the law,
albeit unwittingly. The best way to avoid such stressful circumstances
is to make sure you are clued up when it comes to insurance and
employment law in particular and of course to keep up with changes in
the law each year.
First of all you need to make sure you are insured and in all the right places. You may already have thought about or implemented office contents insurance, professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance but what about employer's liability insurance?
If you don't know already, this insurance basically protects the employer from claims made against them from current or former employees. These claims could be made as a result of your employees getting sick or injured from work activities. Now, you may think that this will never happen and perhaps it won't but when it comes to protecting yourself in this circumstance you have no choice but to oblige. Why? To be blunt, if you don't take out this kind of insurance you will actually be breaking the law. It doesn't matter whether you only have one employee or several, unless they are a family member you risk getting a hefty fine as well as leaving yourself unprotected from any claims made.
Shockingly, a recent survey by YOUR Insurance revealed that 47% of people surveyed had absolutely no clue that not having employers liability insurance meant they were breaking the law leaving them open to being fined up to £2500 for each day without it!
Even if you feel you know your 'stuff' when it comes to employing others, not keeping up to date with changes in the law could mean you end up breaking it. For instance, how many of you are aware in the changes in law that are coming in for sickness at work in 2014 and for paternity leave in 2015?
Regarding employee sickness, it is important to note that there has been a government response that will be changing the way sickness absence systems are working and therefore have to be dealt with. Also, because of the changes to parental leave it means more employees will be eligible to have time off work and will no doubt be sure to embrace the changes in their favour. To survive, businesses be equipped to deal with these situations.
Not knowing about and therefore not complying with these new systems could spell big trouble. Of course even if you do know about the changes, when faced with dealing with the actual situation you need to be sure about what the correct procedures are and get Acas advice to be sure you are following best practice in the tricky areas of your business.
First of all you need to make sure you are insured and in all the right places. You may already have thought about or implemented office contents insurance, professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance but what about employer's liability insurance?
If you don't know already, this insurance basically protects the employer from claims made against them from current or former employees. These claims could be made as a result of your employees getting sick or injured from work activities. Now, you may think that this will never happen and perhaps it won't but when it comes to protecting yourself in this circumstance you have no choice but to oblige. Why? To be blunt, if you don't take out this kind of insurance you will actually be breaking the law. It doesn't matter whether you only have one employee or several, unless they are a family member you risk getting a hefty fine as well as leaving yourself unprotected from any claims made.
Shockingly, a recent survey by YOUR Insurance revealed that 47% of people surveyed had absolutely no clue that not having employers liability insurance meant they were breaking the law leaving them open to being fined up to £2500 for each day without it!
Even if you feel you know your 'stuff' when it comes to employing others, not keeping up to date with changes in the law could mean you end up breaking it. For instance, how many of you are aware in the changes in law that are coming in for sickness at work in 2014 and for paternity leave in 2015?
Regarding employee sickness, it is important to note that there has been a government response that will be changing the way sickness absence systems are working and therefore have to be dealt with. Also, because of the changes to parental leave it means more employees will be eligible to have time off work and will no doubt be sure to embrace the changes in their favour. To survive, businesses be equipped to deal with these situations.
Not knowing about and therefore not complying with these new systems could spell big trouble. Of course even if you do know about the changes, when faced with dealing with the actual situation you need to be sure about what the correct procedures are and get Acas advice to be sure you are following best practice in the tricky areas of your business.
Hello! I'm Nathalie. Thanks for reading my articles on
EzineArticles I really hope you are enjoying them! Please feel free to
join me on Twitter!
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nathalie_Martin
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق