Risk & Business

With the new OSHA rules mandating that employers report any employee hospitalizations, heat related issues have garnered some attention. Prior to the new reporting rules, only multiple employee hospitalizations from one incident had to be reported. In heat stress related claims, very few multiple events occurred so there was very little reporting to the Feds. Now many employers find themselves having to report when an employee gets heat stress on the job and has to go to the hospital for hydration and monitoring. Heat related cases are common in the summer months for workers who spend their work day outdoors. Now a usually non reportable , has to be reported to OSHA. The Feds are taking notice since the amount of reported cases has increased this year. Fines have followed with some "willful" penalties assessed to employers. So this summer take some risk management steps to avoid having your employees get heat stress. here are some steps as noted by the Business Insurance Jour

During this time of the year many small business owners enjoy throwing summer picnics for their employees and families. The events usually include food , alcohol and fun activities. Unfortunately this combination causes some things to happen. So the question comes to mind, who is responsible? Employees that get hurt during employer sponsored picnics could file for work comp benefits. Some state jurisdictions will allow these type of claims. A lot will depend on the circumstances surrounding the injuries however.  If a family member of an employee gets food poisoning from bad egg salad, is the business owner liable?  Maybe, maybe not, the good news here is the business general liability would cover the claim if the business if found to be liable. What about alcohol related claims , is the business liable?  Again , possibly, but the general liability policy will cover under the clause of host liquor liability, unless you are selling the alcohol and deemed " in the business" o

Many small business owners get confused when it comes to insurance. It can be down right intimidating.  Understanding the umbrella policy is one of those intimidating items. Every small business owner needs one but only a low percentage actually have them in place.  So let's take a few minutes and clarify what the umbrella policy is and why you should buy one. An umbrella policy is extra protection over your business policy, auto, and work comp all in one form. It is also very inexpensive when compared to other lines of insurance. An umbrella policy can also add extra limits of liability coverage even if you only have one underlying policy. You do not have to have a lot of other policies to have an umbrella. So if you only have a business owners policy covering your small business and no auto or work comp, you can still have an umbrella policy over top adding an extra limit of coverage. Most umbrella policies add another 1,000,000 of coverage, but this limit can be increased to 2,