CBI director general Digby Jones has called on the government to set up a working fund for industrial accidents in an attempt to stop the rising premiums for employers' liability insurance
CBI director general Digby Jones has called on the government to set up a working fund for industrial accidents in an attempt to stop the rising premiums for employers' liability (EL) insurance.
According to a report, Jones said the working fund could pay for immediate treatment of injured employees and be repaid by the employer or the insurer after any disputes had been resolved.
"We need to change the emphasis to get people back to work, rather than focusing on the cost of the industry," he said. "This is a shift which can happen tomorrow. Let's get the money to spend and then decide who foots the bill."
Jones said the two government reports on EL insurance had not tackled the problem. CBI members viewed rising EL premiums as one of the single largest threats to UK productivity, he said.
He warned that unless measures were taken, Britain would end up caught between EU legislation designed to combat the problem and an increase in US-style compensation culture.
Marsh UK chief executive Bruce Carnegie-Brown called on the government to change the law to allow insurers to provide cover for industrial accidents in isolation.
According to the report, Carnegie-Brown said insurance premiums were soaring as insurers tried to build reserves to protect from future unforeseen medical claims, similar to those from asbestos-related diseases.
"Essentially the insurers are writing a blank cheque for long-tail issues, and the employers are writing bigger and bigger cheques to the insurers," said Carnegie-Brown.
