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Once the earthquake has stopped, what you do next could be very critical.
You need to look at your Worker's Compensation policy to make sure that the employees are still covered if they remain on the clock and at work after a major earthquake.
This is because earthquake aftershocks may or may not be covered on your particular Worker's Compensation policy and if you are unsure about this, you need to talk to your insurance agent, and if he is unsure of this, he needs to meet with his insurance underwriters.
These are all very serious issues and even if your company is small enough that it does not have a risk management department, that does not alleviate it from the financial liability if employees are injured in an earthquake aftershock, when you should have already dismissed them from work and told them that you are closing the company for the day.
There have been legal cases where there have been big earthquakes and the managers of these corporations sent employees around to inspect the building and then aftershocks occurred and pieces of the building fell on those workers.
There have also been instances where large warehouses after a big earthquake had sent employees into the building to help cleanup items that had spilled to prevent future fires or toxic gases from getting into the building.
When an aftershock came, these same employees were injured the insurance company refused to pay because they said it was negligence from the manager, against policy, and that they should not have sent people back into the building.
In another case, there was a question of a criminal offense because it was against OSHA standards for the manager to ask the employees to do something that caused their injury in the follow up after-shock.
Please consider all this.
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