DAS' Employment Practices Protection policy (EPP), which was launched at the beginning of last year, has widened brokers' portfolios by introducing a new risk management tool tackling the problems of employing large numbers of staff.
EPP is designed specifically for larger organisations.
Commercial legal insurance underwriting has traditionally concentrated on providing cover in the event of a claim, but with EPP, claims DAS, attention is focused on preventing the claim in the first place, as well as providing more extensive insurances to cover claims made.
According to DAS, all new EPP policyholders receive an employment audit as part of their cover.
This checks that their practices follow correct procedures, with the auditor making recommendations for changes where necessary.
A telephone counselling service reduces the risk of stress claims being made by employees against their employers. This can be key in fighting this kind of claim.
When quashing three awards for stress totalling £200,000 in the Court of Appeal, judges identified counselling services as having a role to play in minimising stress among staff.
They stated that employers that had done their best to minimise stress levels by offering telephone counselling to staff were unlikely to be found in breach of their duty to care for them.
One such scheme is provided by DAS for Aon Academia.
Several independent schools insured by Aon have taken EPP policies from scratch or upgraded their commercial legal protection to it.
