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People & statutory peril

Workplace Injury & Employee Liability

Statutory and common-law liability for workplace death, injury and occupational disease.

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The risk

Your statutory liability to your workforce does not lapse.

The Code on Social Security, 2020 (and ESIC where applicable) fixes employer liability for workplace death, disablement and occupational disease. WC/EC policies cover the statutory award, while common-law negligence and Fatal Accidents Act exposure sit alongside. High-hazard worksites carry the steepest exposure, and contractor labour widens it further.

Exposure profile

Where this risk lands on your balance sheet.

The exposures we evaluate first when scoping a programme against this risk.

01
Statutory EC Act compensation
Fixed-schedule liability for death and disablement, payable regardless of fault.
02
Common-law negligence claims
Injury suits beyond the statutory award where employer negligence is alleged.
03
Occupational disease & long-tail claims
Exposure to dust, chemicals and noise surfaces years after the work.
04
Contractor & sub-contractor labour
Liability for contract workforce is frequently uninsured or mis-scoped.
Industries most exposed

Who carries the most of this risk.

The sectors where this exposure is most acute, each links to its industry page.

01
Mining & Ore Extraction
High-hazard extraction operations.
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02
Construction & Infrastructure
Falls, plant and site fatalities.
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03
Steel & Metal Fabrication
Heavy plant, heat and moving machinery.
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04
Chemicals & Petrochemicals
Exposure, burns and process hazard.
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05
Marble & Granite Quarrying
Cutting, lifting and handling injury.
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06
Engineering & EPC Contractors
Large contract-labour exposure.
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Recommended cover

The programme that responds to this risk.

Each cover links to its full product page. The combination, limits and wording are what we structure on your behalf.

01
Workmen Compensation
Code on Social Security, 2020 statutory cover plus common-law and Fatal Accidents Act extension.
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02
Group Personal Accident
24-hour personal-accident cover for death and disablement.
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03
Group Medical Cover
Group health cover for the workforce and dependants.
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04
Public Liability
Third-party cover where a worksite incident affects others.
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Want a risk-specific programme review?

Speak with an advisor who has structured cover against this risk for clients in your sector.

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FAQ

Common Questions

A statutory liability under the Employees' Compensation Act for accidents arising out of and in the course of employment, which follows the schedule in the Act rather than anything you agree. Beyond that sits the practical exposure: the family, the workforce watching how it is handled, and any contractual obligation to a principal employer.
The statutory one largely does. The commute, the weekend and the holiday are outside it, which is why a workforce covered only for statutory liability is protected for part of the week. That gap is the reason personal accident cover sits alongside it rather than instead of it.
Often yours, in practice. A principal employer can be held responsible where the contractor has not met the obligation, and most contracts pass the requirement down without removing the exposure. Verifying that a contractor actually holds the cover is worth more than the clause requiring it.
Where employees are genuinely covered under ESIC, the statutory liability is largely met through it. The gaps are employees above the wage threshold, establishments outside a notified area, and periods where registration has lapsed. Those gaps are exactly where a claim tends to land.
It depends on the worker's age and wages, because the statutory schedule is built from both, and a young worker with a permanent disability produces the largest figure. That is the opposite of the intuition that a senior employee is the bigger exposure.