You can get insurance for a number of eyebrow raising scenarios nowadays. In most cases the likelihood of actually ever claiming is pretty remote so the provider of the insurance is sitting pretty with premiums being accepted against a fairly low risk situation. However sometimes the insurers do find themselves having to fork out for some fiendishly rare occerence. Schools can take out insurance policies for special cover by supply teachers, should any of their regular stock suddenly have to go off sick for a while. I did not know this until a family member was confronted with an overly officious school bursar demanding she sign forms and provide all sorts of personal details regading her absence of, at that stage, 2 days. My neice rightly refused and told the bursar she was out of order to acost her on a trip into school to talk with their boss, the headteacher. Fortunately my neice is a member of one of the larger teaching unions and was on the phone to them p.d.q. The jobsworth bursar was spoken to by the Head, who is known to be frightened of her, but the union advice and instructions were for him to talk to the bursar and explain why her actions were quite possibly illegal and could be thought to be harrassment and bullying. The bursar accepted the Head’s word of caution with little grace but had to accept it once mention of Employment Tribunal and Teaching Union were mentioned in the same sentence.
