Employers and Public Liability and COVID-19

Our Liability cover provides protection for the policyholder against their legal liabilities to their employees or the public. This includes property damage and Bodily Injury; Bodily injury includes Illness (including resulting death). ‘Illness’ is not defined so could include legal liabilities incurred from COVID-19 in a situation where the insured has breached their duty of care.

For a breach of duty of care to be considered, the insured would need to be in contravention of any government guidelines or advice regarding safety at work or travel.

For example;

• By sending an employee to an area affected where the FCO have advised against all but essential travel
• Not providing essential equipment or guidelines for adequate sanitation
• By making an employee come to work after they have travelled in an affected area resulting in others becoming exposed to the virus (either employees or the public).

To help avoiding scenarios like these, you could consider establishing whether the insured has an up to date risk assessment and updated health and safety guidelines that include COVID-19, as well as an up to date business continuity plan.  If in place, this should also be reviewed regularly as both the situation and government advice continues to evolve rapidly.