Nonprofit Volunteers/ IT Theft

Many of you serve on nonprofit boards as do I. I have always been concerned about nonprofits having a formal policy for their volunteers. I therefore under the auspices of my company CAL Insurance have put together a Volunteers Handbook for nonprofits.

This includes an outline of what a nonprofit should provide its Volunteers
It also provides a very important letter explaining insurance coverages and a release of liability for workers compensation. Most nonprofits do not provide workers compensation coverage for their volunteers and I think there is an exposure to the nonprofit and maybe even the directors if f this is not clearly pointed out.

If you would like to receive a copy of this handbook please let me know.

Please see below what I think is an important survey indicating that nearly one third of Americans feel that businesses are not doing enough to them from workplace discrimination and identity theft. This presents some real liabilities for businesses.

You may not know that there is available in the insurance market place coverage for these liabilities as well as coverage for hackers and worms and IT theft on their IT systems.

Even if you don’t buy the insurance coverage you should be aware of the questions asked by the underwriters as it will give you some guidelines of what are the concerns of the underwriters and policies you can put in place to protect yourself. If you would like a sample application please let me know.


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@smallbusinesscalifornia.org
415-680-2188


Survey: Businesses Not Doing Enough to Protect Against Discrimination; ID Theft
By admin | May 2, 2011


Nearly a third of Americans report that businesses are not doing enough to protect them from workplace discrimination and identity theft.

A recent survey by the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. found that one in three people surveyed said, compared to a year ago, companies are less likely to protect employees from gender discrimination (30 percent) and other workplace discrimination (32 percent). One-third (32 percent) also believe that companies are less likely to protect consumers from the theft of personal information.

Discrimination Charges Soar

“A record-high number of discrimination charges have been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” noted Catherine Padalino, vice president and employment practices liability product manager for Chubb. “The surge may be the result of a large number of employees who were laid off and have had difficulty finding new employment.”

Padalino says that when employers face employment discrimination charges they should conduct investigations of all charges and report them in a timely manner to their insurance company. “In addition, employers should continually review and adhere to anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies and procedures, keep abreast of changes in employment laws and seek outside counsel when facing discrimination charges or considering employee layoffs.”

Cyber Threats Grow

Despite corporate controls, the number of cyber breaches continues to grow, the survey says.

“The increased use of electronic health records, mobile devices, apps and social media offers cyber criminals new places to play,” said Tracey Vispoli, senior vice president and Chubb’s worldwide cyber security liability manager. “As cyber breaches expose more employees and consumers to identity theft, companies are wrestling with higher costs to contain and repair the financial and reputational damage.”
A company’s board of directors needs to understand the risk associated with the theft of employee and customer information, Vispoli advised.

“This is more than just an IT issue,” Vispoli says. “Although companies can help mitigate the risk by following best practices, they also need to have contingency plans in place before a data breach occurs.”

Chubb’s survey of 1,000 Americans was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, an independent public opinion and market research firm, in April 2011.

Source: Chubb