Workers Compensation
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Maria Vicari
Agent Colstan & Associates, Inc. Huntington, NY |
A busy commercial kitchen -- in a restaurant or foodservice -- can be a dangerous place to work. Slippery floors, knives and other sharp tools, hot surfaces, heavy equipment, food packages and very tight storage spaces can all be the cause of injuries. Add to those the fast pace of production duties and the rush of activity that occurs daily during lunch or dinner-time and there are multiple opportunities for a disastrous and costly accident. Based on a survey taken by Liberty Mutual, 45% of restaurant accidents become Workers Compensation cases due to slips and falls-despite the safety training tools and practices staff are exposed to in the work place.
Restaurateurs and foodservice operators do not start businesses because they think they're going to be really good at buying insurance for them. Nonetheless, buying the right insurance coverage is an extremely important task, and no business operator wants to learn the hard way that he or she has been doing it wrong. It’s important to pay close attention to the kind of insurance purchased for any small or big business; otherwise operators could face a shock when they file claims.
Small-business operators say they are straining under workers' compensation premiums, which have risen by average of 50% nationwide. One part of the problem is that growing number of small businesses evade requirements to carry workers' compensation coverage. These companies’ workers can still file claims when injured, but their costs are usually passed along to businesses with insurance, which pay higher premiums as result.
Is your restaurant or foodservice paying too much for Workers' Compensation insurance? Are you aware that there are "Safety Groups” out there? A Safety Group is a collection of policyholders engaged in the same business or profession who have a defined program for actively promoting loss control. Based on aggregate results of the group, a dividend is paid to the members. Insurance agencies may offer more than one Safety Group plan to fit different foodservice operations’ needs, and these include:
1) Simplified Plans - These do not have a common effective date (they are non-concurrent), so members can select any effective date and still be in the safety group. They typically have a maximum payout, which is based on a simple formula.
2) Max Plans - These have one concurrent effective date for all members. They also have a maximum payout based on a simple formula.
3) Standard Plans - These have one common, or concurrent, effective date, which is indicated under the inception date column. These plans have no specific maximum payout. However, the formula to calculate the dividend is more complex and requires a percentage of the premium dollars collected to be kept in a contingency balance.
Which plan seems best for your foodservice or restaurant?
