If your workforce is covered by an Enterprise Agreement, the insurance clauses inside it are not boilerplate. They set out the death, disability, and income protection benefits you have committed to provide — and the standard your arrangements are measured against if something goes wrong.
The difficulty is that these clauses were rarely written with the insurance market in mind. They reference benefit levels, eligibility, and waiting periods that may not map cleanly onto any policy you can actually buy. Closing that gap is where good advice earns its keep.
What the clause actually commits you to
Start by separating the benefit promise from the funding mechanism. The agreement promises a benefit to the employee; it does not necessarily require you to insure it. Reading the two as one is the most common source of accidental exposure.
- The benefit type and amount — a fixed sum, a multiple of salary, or a formula.
- Who is eligible, and from what date their cover begins.
- Whether cover continues during leave, transfer, or restructure.
- What happens if an insurer declines or limits a claim.
The agreement promises a benefit to the employee. It does not promise that an insurer will pay it.
Where employers most often come unstuck
Three gaps recur. Cover that lapses for employees on extended leave; benefit definitions that are narrower in the policy than in the agreement; and automatic acceptance limits that quietly leave higher earners underinsured.
Closing the gap
A structured review reconciles the agreement against the policy, line by line, and prices the difference. In most cases the fix is a settings change rather than a new program — but you only find that out by reading both documents side by side.