We have created this section to address any questions you may have regarding how Concordia can help your company, about the services we offer, and Employment Practice Liability Insurance. If you have any further questions or queries then please get in touch via our contact page as we would be glad to answer them for you.
The employment environment has become more complex through increased legislation (for instance the latest Shared Parental Leave regulations), and also because employees have greater awareness of their rights and of the legal avenues available to them.
Between 1st April 2012 and 31st March 2013, the latest statistics available, 191,541 claims were filed in Employment Tribunals. Since then, the government has introduced changes in the way employees can bring claims to an Employment Tribunal, resulting in the number of claims reaching employment tribunals significantly reducing. Employees now have to first approach Acas to engage in an early conciliation process, and further they have to pay steep upfront fees to file a claim.
But the drop in claims in employment tribunal claims should not hide the reality of what’s happening in the UK workplace. The underlying issues are still there. These changes are not reducing the number of Grievances you face, nor how you have to deal with staff performance or conduct issues. Instead of going straight to employment tribunal, these issues fester within your company, or end up in the increasingly busy case load of Acas conciliators, or your employee may choose an alternative route to seek a judgment (such as a civil court).
So if:
- you want to reduce the risk to your business,
- you want to ensure that you and your business are better prepared
- you seek an experienced and engaged partner that will help you deal with the difficult end of employment cycle, and
- you want to protect yourself against the possible severe financial consequences,
then Concordia is right for you through a unique and comprehensive approach. We are the one stop shop to support you throughout these challenging employee matters.
We provide you with access to our entire value proposition through an insurance policy package and pay for it through a single premium.
Because we are present alongside you from the early signs of a case till its resolution, you do not need anymore to wonder how to handle this matter or to whom you should refer it.
You won’t need to figure out when to involve your law firm, your insurance providers, or your HR advisors. You won’t have to worry that something will fall through the cracks between all these providers. We are there to ensure an end-to-end coordination.
You won’t have to worry either whether you are following the right process, as you will not be left on your own to deal with the issue. We are not a web-based helpline, or phone based service that leaves you alone once the call is over. Your Account Manager will be there to assist you, all the way.
We are a one-stop shop for you. And no additional or hidden costs. Our offer includes your up-to-date key HR policies and your training. It also includes the investigations we will conduct for you and we will cover you for the adverse financial consequences you may incur.
Our unique approach comes from our ethos: we believe that increased awareness of employers and working collaboratively does make a difference.
This philosophy drives how we build our service offering, and how we have selected and associated with some of the best and most experienced business partners. They are all leading firms in their respective fields, and together we bring you the most compelling and comprehensive employment relation management solution.
Absolutely. We actually welcome instances where our clients have an HR consultant / advisor already working for them. We work alongside with them, and add our employment relations expertise to what they already provide you with. For instance:
- we will work with you HR advisor to see how to implement the key HR policies we provide you with
- we will consider retaining your HR advisor, at our expenses, to conduct certain on-site investigations (e.g. holding a disciplinary meeting), recognising the knowledge they have of your company, processes and people.
Concordia works with a growing network of HR consultants across the country. So we will welcome the opportunity to expand this network with your appointed HR consultant.
We believe we can make a huge difference to HR Managers by supporting you with our specialist expertise. HR Managers have such a vast remit, dealing with matters such as payroll, recruitment, staff training and development, restructuring, compensation and benefit matters, all while driving the overall HR strategies of their organisation.
If you are an HR Manager, we would become your trusted business partner and focus on dealing with the difficult (and time consuming) end of employment matters.
We are an underwriting agency. This means that as Appointed Representatives of Ambant Underwriting Services, we operate under the regulations set by the Financial Conduct Authority. And you can see this on the Financial Services Register, here. We underwrite the Concordia Employment Practice Liability Insurance policy on behalf of insurance companies.
And under these FCA rules, an underwriting agent does not provide you with advice as a consultant would do. What we will do however, is share with you our vast experience and how we believe claims should be handled. We will provide you with the full disclosure required and work in full transparency with you. One Policy, One Premium, One Partner. No hassle.
Concordia provides you with comprehensive financial protection through an Employment Practice Liability Insurance (EPLI) package backed by the superior financial strength of XL.
Although we believe that our active case management will contain cases before reaching tribunals, such outcome is sometimes inevitable and our insurance policy will provide you with that financial peace of mind. For more information on EPLI, please go to our EPLI section in FAQ’s.
Our team of experts at Concordia and the Employment team from Clyde and Co, a leading law firm, have identified and drafted a set of key HR policies that we believe are a “must have”.
From our experience, we believe that not having this set of policies significantly further expose UK employers to employment relation issues.
These policies address all the critical topics such as Disciplinary rules, Performance management, Grievance and Sickness policies, but also many other areas such as Social media policy or the new regulations on Shared Parental Leave
And these Key HR policies are included in your package, and will be updated as the law changes and employment environment evolves.
We work with our clients, we don’t dictate them.
We guide you through the employment related claim process using our expertise, but ultimately, once we have exchanged views, it is your choice on how you would like to proceed. And if you chose to take a different path to the one we recommend, (e.g. settling or not settling), we will not walk away. Unlike certain legal expense insurance policies, we do not dictate you the way forward, nor walk away of you disagree.
We coach our clients through the employment relations issues they face, reminding them of the steps that should be followed to maximise an early and cost-effective resolution. We share our experience and knowledge of employment law, having dealt with many similar cases before.
Importantly, we do not let our clients face the issues alone. The degree of our involvement is a function of how serious the matter is, and to what extend you want us involved.
The Policy you will receive has been designed to specifically cover your liabilities as an employer arising from claims made by an “employee” for an “employment practices wrongful act”.
Definitions are therefore important. So:
Our broad definition includes past, present, part time, fixed-term workers, seasonal and temporary employees, volunteers, trainees, as well as job applicants and independent contractors or agency workers.
There are indeed cases brought by former employees, or candidates for a job that you have posted that claim they have not been selected because of discrimination reasons, or even contractors towards whom you may have, even unwillingly, obligations as if they were actual employees.
It is any employment related actual or alleged tortious act or omission, breach of statutory provision or breach of common law relating to an employee, including but not limited to:
- failure to provide equal opportunity of employment or pay;
- discrimination;
- harassment, whether sexual harassment or otherwise, through workplace bullying, or by way of social media for example;
- wrongful dismissal or treatment;
- retaliation and/or victimisation;
- inducement to become or remain as an employee based upon an erroneous job description;
- defamation, misrepresentation, negligent misstatement, wrongful failure to employ or promote, deprivation of a career opportunity, or wrongful discipline;
- violation of an employee’s civil or human rights, or violations of any similar statutory provision arising out of acts or omissions by an insured or a person for whom the insured is legally responsible;
- claims arising from breach of data protection or privacy obligations;
- failure to allow an employee to exercise a statutory right; or
- failure to provide or enforce corporate policies or procedures to prevent or address any of the above.
No. We will give you our recommendations as respect what we believe is the most effective strategy to resolve the matter. But ultimately, if you want to follow your way, we will continue to support you, and the policy will continue responding to the claim. We would only then ask you to assume 20% of the financial consequences, and will continue to pay the remaining 80% of what the policy covers, instead of 100% otherwise. Unlike most legal expense policies we will not impose you to follow a prescriptive process, nor will we walk away if you inadvertently fail to follow it.
Yes, but nothing that should really surprise you. For instance it excludes claims for losses that are normally covered under your property, general liability, Directors’ and Officers’ or Employer’s Liability policies, which would conversely typically exclude claims covered under this EPLI policy. It also excludes as you would expect claims that have already been made against you. For because these claims have occurred before the policy in place, the policy will not be able to pay for related award, settlement or expenses. However, we will of course lend you our support in managing these cases.
We will pay for your “loss” that includes damages, judgments and settlements. It does not include the pay or the benefits that you would have in any event paid to an employee, but it includes the legal expenses incurred to defend the claim, whatever the outcome. We will even pay for training you commit to deliver to staff as part of a settlement agreement. The policy indemnifies you in excess of the applicable retention, whichever you will have selected (e.g. £2,500 per claim, or up to £10,000). And of course there is a limit to the Policy, which you can chose from £1,000,000 to £10,000,000 per year across all claims.
Employer’s liability insurance is a compulsory insurance that covers you for claims made by employees that have been injured at work or have become ill as a result of their work while in your employment. It does not cover you for what Concordia’s EPLI policy is designed to cover you for.
Legal Expense cover is also very different to Concordia’s EPLI policy. Inasmuch it will cover certain of your legal expenses, and even in some cases, certain awards, Legal Expense policies usually offer less limits (typically £100,000), their coverage is more restrictive and most importantly they impose strict conditions on you to follow before responding to a claim. Concordia EPLI policies offer significant limits, broad coverage, and does not impose you to follow endless rules.
Legal Expense cover is also very different to Concordia’s EPLI policy. Inasmuch it will cover certain of your legal expenses, and even in some cases, certain awards, Legal Expense policies usually offer less limits (typically £100,000), their coverage is more restrictive and most importantly they impose strict conditions on you to follow before responding to a claim. Concordia EPLI policies offer significant limits, broad coverage, and does not impose you to follow endless rules.
Actually not. EPLI policies have first been used in the US, where significant employee class actions emerged in the 90s. Progressively the trend for employment related claims in the UK meant that here too, employers became more and more exposed, resulting in a growing popularity of EPLI in the UK. What makes Concordia offering unique, is not only an EPLI policy wording fully up-to-date with the latest UK legislation. It is the combination of that broad and flexible insurance protection together with an integrated claim mitigation and claims handling support that makes Concordia unique in the market place.
Concordia underwrites the policy on behalf of XL Insurance. XL Insurance Company SE holds a Financial Strength Rating of ‘A’ from A. M. Best, ‘A+’ from Fitch, ‘A2’ from Moody’s and ‘A+’ from S&P. These ratings are independent opinions. You are in good hands.