It’s no longer off the radar screen. It’s front page material. More and more companies are finding out the hard way just how complex the employment relationship has become. Employers face a growing multitude of serious employment practices liability (EPL) exposures in their day-to-day interactions with employees.

Companies and their managers are subject to a widening collection of federal, state, and local employment laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, just to name a few. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is taking a much more aggressive stance in investigating EPL claims and filing lawsuits for sexual harassment, women being discriminated in the workplace, wrongful termination, retaliatory treatment, unfair hiring practices, and other types of workplace torts.

The average number of charges filed with the EEOC from 1996 to 1999 was nearly 80,000 annually. Monetary awards increased 275% between 1994 and 1999, when the total amount awarded topped $100 million. The average verdict in EPL cases now exceeds $450,000, and employment issues now make up 30% of all civil litigation in the U.S. Court cases of discrimination in the workplace and age discrimination court cases are on the rise. The truth is, the courts have decided, the employee is almost always right. According to the Department of Labor, employees and other plaintiffs won 41% of all jury trials and 26% of all non-jury trials in 1999, and punitive damages were assessed in 19% of all cases.

Repercussions of these lawsuits can be felt well beyond their initial devastating and distracting impact, because one large uninsured employment practices claim can lead to shareholder lawsuits. Discrimination lawsuit settlements and cases of wrongful termination have had a dramatic affect on the bottom line of small and large businesses in the United States.

There’s no question that EPL claims can have a serious financial impact on small to mid-sized companies. To help protect private companies and their employees, InsureCast offers Employment Practices Liability Insurance coverage.