Glossary

Workplace harassment refers to harassment "of a nonsexual nature." "Harassment" is often not defined in specific terms within employment practice liability (EPL) policies. Frequently, the forms may include a detailed definition of "sexual harassment," accompanied by a more general definition of "workplace harassment," which is simply described as "nonsexual." Two common descriptions (i.e., examples of policy wording) of the acts associated with "workplace harassment" include "conduct, advances, contact or communications" and "verbal, visual or physical conduct." "Bullying" is often specifically referred to within the "workplace harassment" definition. Apart from that, most policies do not provide specific examples of acts constituting "workplace harassment," instead opting for more sweeping descriptions and loosely referring to the sexual harassment definition. Behavior such as using racist nicknames, trying to convert employees to a different religion, disparaging an individual's ethnic background, and so on would typically be provided for under definitions of harassment.

Workplace tort refers to a civil wrong committed within the workplace that can give rise to an employee's cause of action against an employer. Workplace torts are those that cannot be categorized within the scope of wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination. They are employer actions that fall outside the scope of workers compensation coverage but are afforded coverage by employment practices liability (EPL) policies. Examples of workplace torts include constructive discharge, wrongful demotion, retaliation, misrepresentation, and defamation.

Workplace violence insurance is coverage for the expenses that a company incurs resulting from workplace violence incidents. The policies cover items such as the cost of hiring independent security consultants, public relations experts, death benefits to survivors, and business interruption (BI) expenses.

Work hardening is an interdisciplinary program utilized to return an injured individual to work. Although a major thrust of the process is a physical therapy program that utilizes work simulation, elements of occupational therapy, vocational rehabilitation, and psychological evaluation are included to specifically tailor a program for the injured individual. The goals of work hardening are to return the individual to work and to prevent future injury.

The work you performed exclusion is contained within the auto dealers coverage form and precludes coverage for damage to the insured's work resulting from any part of the work itself or from the parts, materials, or equipment used in connection with the work. The work you performed exclusion applies whether the work was done by the named insured or was done by someone else (i.e., subcontracted) for the named insured.

A worldwide insurance program is an international insurance program of a multinational company with a policy territory encompassing the entire world except for the country in which the insured is domiciled.

A wrap-around policy is one that provides only punitive damages insurance for employment practices liability (EPL) claims. Such forms are also called offshore wrap-around policies because they "wrap around" an admitted EPL insurance (EPLI) policy, providing coverage only for punitive damages resulting from a claim under the EPLI policy. Most often, the issuing insurer is an affiliated Bermuda company of the EPLI insurer but can also be an unrelated insurer. Although there has been some controversy regarding such policies, their validity has not yet been tested in court.

A wrap-around risk financing program has two or more different risk financing approaches that are combined into one overall program. Typically, a wrap-around is used for workers compensation insurance so that the most cost-effective program in each state can be used to an insured's advantage. For instance, in State A, an insured may have an exposure large enough to qualify as a self-insurer, whereas the requirements in State B may be such that another type of risk financing program is preferable.

A wrap-up exclusion endorsement is used to remove coverage from a contractor's insurance policies to the extent they overlap with the coverages provided for the contractor under a wrap-up insurance program. Standard workers compensation and commercial general liability (CGL) endorsements are available for this purpose. However, contractors should consider preserving their own CGL coverage as excess over the wrap-up policies, which requires a manuscript endorsement.

A writ is a formal legal document issued by a higher court that requests a lower court or a government entity to take action. For example, a writ of certiorari orders a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it.