As a small business owner, you need to consider the risks that both your business and your employees may face.
If any of your employees get injured while doing their job, your company is expected to pay for their medical bills and compensate them for the wages they lose while in recovery.
Although rare, If one of your workers dies doing their job, you would also be expected to pay for the funeral costs.
This is called workers' compensation, and if you invest in business insurance, you may not have to pay for all of those costs out of pocket.
It is legally required that all businesses in Papua New Guinea provide workers' compensation for their employees, specified by the Workers' Compensation Act of 1978. For this reason and many others, you should come up with a workers' compensation plan today.
Workers' compensation protects your business
If you do not have an adequate workers' compensation policy in place for your employees, you could face legal and financial consequences.
For a first offence, your business could be fined K500. For an offence after your first, you could be fined K1,000.
The main objective of your business is to make money. If you get hit with fines for avoidable acts, you are defeating the purpose of your business.
The longer an employer refuses to provide a workers' compensation plan for their employees, the more times the government can fine the business owner. Those fines could add up to costs that hurt the business more than workers' compensation costs ever could.
However, what if the government never finds out?
First of all, that is unlikely.
Second of all, even if an employer could get away with not providing workers' compensation insurance, they shouldn't want to. Workers' compensation protects not only the company, but also the business' employees and their families.
Workers' compensation protects your employees
Your employees' primary goal is simple: to make money.
They need the wages they bring home from their jobs to pay for their homes, food and to invest in their future.
If one of your employees gets injured to the extent that they need medical attention and/or need to take time off of work, that will cost them a lot of money. They would essentially lose the wages that they made before the accident to medical bills, and they would lose any wages that they expected to make after the accident by not working.
This is a risk that many employees are not willing to take, and they are right to feel that way. If your business does not provide adequate workers' compensation, you may have a hard time recruiting or keeping employees.
Additionally, as a business owner, you should make it clear to your employees that you care about their wellbeing. The best way to do that is to invest in their livelihoods, and that means protecting them from risks like financially crippling injuries.
If your employees know that you care about them, they will be more happy working for you and less likely to seek another job. Retaining employees means that you won't have to spend time hiring and training new people, which gives you more time you can devote to making money.
How Trans Pacific can help
We can help you figure out the workers' compensation policies that work best for your business and your employees. We can get you in touch with an insurance broker, especially if you operate a larger business, or you can work directly with one of our representatives.
Contact us today to learn more about workers' compensation insurance.
