The cost of overseas medical expenses can be crippling.

According to Australian Government statistics the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assists more than 20,000 Australian travellers a year, including over 700 hospitalisations, 600 deaths and 100 evacuations to other locations for medical purposes.

Are you covered?

If you or your employees travel either internationally or domestically while on business, you should make sure your company isn’t exposed to substantial expenses. Expenses for medical treatment, emergency medical evacuation, flight cancellations or lost luggage are just a few of the common costs that companies can face when on business trips.

Some key benefits of a Corporate Travel Policy include:

• Personal injury and medical expenses
• Luggage, money, travel documents
• Political and natural disaster evacuation
• Medical expenses insured for up to 24 months after the journey
• Family assistance

Having an annual corporate travel policy will provide automatic cover for you and your employees for domestic or international travel and will save you the hassle of remembering to take out cover for each trip.

In a recent decision in the NSW Administrative Decision Tribunal an employer escaped vicarious liability for taking ‘reasonable steps’ in sexual harassment claim.

The Tribunal decided that employer; Western Area Local Health Service (WALHS) was not vicariously liable for the actions and conduct of one of its male workers who sexually harassed a female colleague.

Cooper v Western Area Local Health Network [2012] NSWADT 39

The claim involved female co-worker (Ms Cooper) being handed a note after a training day and before dinner by a male co-worker (Mr Locke). The note contained ‘extremely sexual explicit material – with no images.’ It was unclear who the author of the note was and there was no clear indication as to whether it was originally intended for Ms Cooper.

Prior to the incident Mr Locke and Ms Cooper had worked together for a period of about five years and were to some extent ‘friends’ – they had attend social gatherings together.

Throughout the hearing, Ms Cooper said that she believed the note was intended for her and written by Mr Locke. However, the tribunal accepted the evidence of Mr Locke and found that the note was written by another person and taken from his laptop without his knowledge.

Mr Locke gave conflicting evidence at the hearing and this was one of a number of difficulties the tribunal found with evidence. The other difficulties included:

Lack of reasonable explanation as to why Mr Locke gave Ms Cooper such a ‘inflammatory document’ to her in a public setting

No credible explanation why Mr Locke gave Ms Cooper the note.

As a result, the tribunal accepted that Mr Locke was not the author of the note, however, they were ‘unable to come to any reasonable explanation as to why, in fact, the note was given to Ms Cooper’

The tribunal noted that it ‘wasn’t to his credit’ to say that ‘Ms Cooper was the author of her own misfortune in picking up the note of her own volition to take home to read.’ Accordingly, the tribunal was satisfied the conduct fell within the scope of s22B of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (the section governing harassment of employees).

Once a complaint is substantiated, the tribunal has the power to award damages. The limit to the award is $100,000.

The tribunal awarded $10,000 damages payable by Mr Locke.

But the employer still had to pay it’s own legal expenses.

Private companies and their directors face significantly greater corporate governance and increasing regulatory surveillance of the management of their business activities but many private company directors and officers are unaware of management-related risks.

A Management Liability is a comprehensive insurance cover that protects both the financial wellbeing of the company and the personal wealth of its directors and officers.

Directors & Officers may be exposed to claims brought against them by:

• Shareholders (i.e. statutory derivative actions)
• Employees (i.e. claims for wrongful dismissal, harassment or wrongful failure to employ or promote
• Statutory bodies (i.e. actions brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission involving alleged breaches of a directors fiduciary duties or investigations commenced by authorities following a work incident)
• Competitors (i.e. allegations of conduct involving anti competitive behaviour)

Management Liability Insurance will generally cover the following amounts in relation to the above actions:

• Representation costs where a Director or Officers is legally required to attend an inquiry or investigation relating to the affairs of the corporation
• Legal costs & expenses in the defence and investigation of a Directors & Officers claim
• Any compensation required to be paid by the insured in order to dispose of a Directors & Officers claim

Actions against the corporation or losses sustained by the corporation generally covered by a Management Liability policy include:

• Employment practices liability claims
• Representation costs in respect of an occupational health & safety investigation
• Direct Financial Loss

Contact your Citycover account manager to learn more about this valuable cover.

1. Don’t tell anyone that you are going away except immediate family and close friends. Try not to mention your departure at work or at football.
2. Stop the newspapers. Newspapers in your driveway or on the lawn alert a would-be thief that no one is home.
3. Arrange for someone to collect your mail or ask the post-office to hold it until you return.
4. Leave a contact number so the neighbours can reach you or someone else you trust in the event of a problem.
5. Lock doors using dead locks. Whilst locks can only keep out honest people you want to make it as hard as possible for someone to steal your possessions.
6. Lock your windows. If a thief can’t get into your home through the door, he will probably try a window. Lock upstairs windows as well as downstairs.
7. Invest in a simple timer so a lamp or TV set will come on at specified times.
8. Don’t leave valuables at home, especially items of sentimental value.
9. Get a safety deposit box instead.
10. Arrange for someone to mow your lawn. Tall grass is a sure sign that no one has been home for a while.
11. Lock your garage, or better still install an alarm. Just about everyone keeps tools or other valuables in the garage. (And don’t leave the key where a burglar can easily find it.)

There is an exclusion contained in liability sections that excludes cover for liability for claims involving motor vehicles that are registered or should have been registered. For this reason we need to bring this to client’s attention.

Information on this topic can be found on the Queensland Transport Website.

Under the heading of “what is a ‘road’ ” it identifies a road as “…areas open to the public for use as a road…”.  It is because of this that we believe areas such as driveways (particularly communal driveways), or car parks, would be defined as a road by Queensland Transport and therefor by a court should a matter arise that went before the courts.

In NSW, the scenario is the same, however the RTA (NSW equivalent to Queensland Transport) is more specific in identifying area’s where a vehicle should be conditionally registered, specifically naming “Public and private car parks and access areas”. See  the RTA Conditional Registration Brochure.

Obviously, when vehicles become registered then Comprehensive (Or TPPD, TPPDF&T) needs to be arranged on these items.

This is also a topic that can extend to domestic policies/clients with vehicles such as golf buggies or ride on mowers. As with Business Pack’s, Household policies exclude liability for motor vehicles that are registered or should have been registered.

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