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Injuries sustained in the workplace present problematic issues for both the employer as well as the injured employee. Of the many types of work-related injuries, back injuries are the most commonly reported malady to Workers Compensation carriers.

A back injury can cost a company thousands of dollars due to such incidents. Missed work for doctor appointments and recovery time account for a large majority of financial losses that might occur.

Types of Work-Related Back Injuries
The most common type of back-injury complaint is that of the lower back. Nearly a million employees per year in the United States alone have reported lost work days due to lower back injury. Spine ailments, such as strains or sprained muscles, account for a great number of disability claims, especially in the field of construction and manual labor. The greater the physical demand of the work, the higher the rate of back injuries.

Although the pain and suffering of the worker who experiences a back injury might seem obvious, the employer is left to deal with the pains of financial loss due to the absence of the employee as well as the Workers Compensation costs. Neither party benefits in any way from an injury of such magnitude. In short, both sides are faced with long-term issues related to the back injury. Companies feel the financial aftershocks of workforce injuries in the amount of $13.4 billion per year.

Back Injury Prevention in the Workforce
Although the effects of job-related back injuries are readily known, the causes and how to prevent such injuries should take center stage for both employers and employees. Many companies offer in-house training and courses to help educate management and workers on how to avoid back injuries. A common program found in many companies is an injury prevention course that promotes safe work habits, such as:

• Proper lifting procedures
• Maximum weight guidelines
• Training on lifting equipment such as dollies and carts
• Proper access to storage equipment to promote easier lifting

Another preventative measure that might facilitate back injury prevention is a company incentive program for workers. Through these types of programs, the worker is offered a bonus for safety and injury-free work. Not only do programs such as these benefit the worker, the employer ultimately will deal less with the problems related to back injuries by implementing such programs.

Aside from the ill effects and prevention ideas presented, employers would do well to also avoid taking a disbelieving stance in response to an employee who might have sustained a back injury. Although it’s possible to feign such an injury, most workers who claim to have acquired an injury are not attempting to deceive their employer. Proper steps must continue to be taken to ensure the health and welfare of both the company and its workers.

A contractor gets a job to install the systems that will control the bank of eight elevators in a new 20-story hotel. The contractor obtains the components from the distributor, installs them without any problems, and moves onto the next job. However, prior to opening, the hotel’s owners find that none of the elevators are working. Diagnosing and repairing the problem will delay the hotel’s opening by at least two weeks and possibly more. The owners sue the general contractor who built the hotel and hired the sub; the GC in turn sues the sub. The sub submits a claim to its Liability insurance company, but the company denies coverage.

The same subcontractor gets an identical job for a new apartment building. This time, the elevators work during testing, but two months after the building opens, they grind to a halt between floors. An investigation reveals damage to the wiring leading from the control panels; the inspectors determine that the control panels short-circuited, causing a power surge that damaged the wires and shut down the elevators. Again, lawsuits follow and the sub forwards the claim to its insurance company. This time, the company pays the claim.

Why did the company deny the first claim but not the second? The answer lies in a provision in the Liability policy known as “the Impaired Property Exclusion.”

The standard Commercial General Liability insurance policy covers the insured’s liability for damage to tangible property and for the loss of use of undamaged tangible property. It also creates a category of property called “impaired property.” This is tangible property (other than the insured’s product or work) that is either less useful or cannot be used at all because it includes the insured’s product or work, and that work is “known or thought to be defective, deficient, inadequate or dangerous.” In both of the examples above, the buildings are impaired property. They cannot open with inoperable elevators, and the reason the elevators are inoperable is that they include the subcontractor’s components and the components are not working properly.

The impaired property exclusion states that the insurance does not apply to property damage to impaired property or property that has not suffered physical injury, if the damage arises from a defect or other problem with the insured’s product or work. There is also no coverage if the damage arises from the insured’s failure to live up to the terms of a contract. The hotel was unable to open because a defect in the contractor’s components prevented the elevators from working. Because the hotel had not suffered physical injury and the damage resulted from a defect in the contractor’s work, the insurance did not cover the contractor’s liability.

The exclusion has an important exception, however. The insurance will apply to the loss of use of other property if it arose from sudden and accidental injury to the insured’s product or work after it has been put to its intended use. The elevators in the apartment building initially worked; they didn’t break down until after the building opened. Because the damage arose out of damage to the contractor’s work after it was put to its intended use, the insurance covered the contractor’s liability.

The impaired property exclusion removes coverage when merely replacing the defective part will solve the problem, but it provides coverage when a defective part damages other property and necessitates repairs. The distinction can be subtle, but it determines whether a contractor has insurance for thousands of dollars in damages.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received more than 30,000 complaints of harassment in the workplace during 2009. It found 4% of them to have merit, and the employers involved paid $80 million in penalties. That same year, it received more than 12,000 complaints of sexual harassment, 33,000 complaints of racial discrimination, and 11,000 complaints of discrimination based on national origin. The employers who were found to have permitted these actions were fined more than $150 million, and these dollar amounts do not include settlements of lawsuits between the employers and affected individuals. The lesson: Allowing a hostile work environment is bad for an employer’s bottom line. Courts have ruled that a work environment is hostile if the speech or conduct occurring there is severe or pervasive enough to offend a reasonable person. This includes things like:

• Sexually explicit remarks
• Sexually explicit displays, such as calendars, posters, and screen savers
• Frequent use of language that denigrates members of one sex, racial, or ethnic group
• Sexually or racially oriented jokes and e-mails
• Unwanted physical contact
• Unwanted solicitations

Managers can be responsible for harassing behaviors in the workplace, even if they do not participate in them. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a company may be legally liable for sexual harassment by supervisors even if the employees do not report it. In a separate case, the court ruled that companies may have legal liability even where the employees do not demonstrate that they suffered a tangible loss. However, there are several things employers can do to keep their workplaces free of harassment.

• Develop and enforce a written workplace policy against all forms of discrimination and harassment. The policy should define prohibited acts, consequences for violating the policy, procedures for reporting violations, and a clear statement that there will not be retribution against those who complain. Every employee should receive a copy of it. It might be necessary to provide training on what constitutes harassment and what employees can do about it.
• Managers must themselves not act in ways that might appear to be harassment, and they must take steps to stop any harassment of which they become aware.
• Follow the established procedures for dealing with harassment. Report all complaints to the human resources manager or other responsible staff person. Conduct a prompt and thorough investigation. Take appropriate action, if called for, against the perpetrator. Depending on the severity of the offense, these actions can range from a verbal warning to a written reprimand to termination of employment.
• Update the computer usage policy to include prohibiting accessing Internet sites that are inappropriate for a work environment. The policy should also warn employees against circulating sexually explicit jokes and materials through the e-mail system. Install filtering software to block employees from visiting pornographic websites. Monitor Internet usage and report to human resources incidents of employees visiting offensive sites. Add provisions to vendor contracts requiring vendors working onsite to abide by the employer’s computer usage rules.

All businesses should consider buying Employment Practices Liability insurance (EPLI). This insurance covers amounts an employer is legally liable to pay because of employment offenses such as discrimination, harassment, discrimination in hiring, firing, or promoting, and other acts. The insurance also covers the costs of defending a claim. Even well-run workplaces might become targets of employee lawsuits, so it is important to have this protection as a backstop.

The workplace should be a safe environment where employees can perform up to their potential. With appropriate rules and attention, managers can keep their workplaces harassment free.