Legal concept | Business & Finance homework help
Two legal elements that must be present for the employer to be considered liable for an employee’s wrongful act(s) are vicarious liability and negligence. Vicarious liability occurs when, by law, an employer can be held responsible for their employees’ actions even though they were not personally involved in the incident. This is often based on the concept of a master-servant relationship between an employer and employee where it is assumed that employers have some control over the actions of their employees. Negligence is where an employer fails to exercise reasonable care in providing a safe environment or carrying out other duties such as training employees correctly or properly supervising them.
If these two elements are present and proven then the employer may be found liable for any wrongful acts committed by their employees. For example, if a customer was injured as a result of negligent supervision by management then this could lead to legal action against the company; similarly if an employee was found to have acted inappropriately due to inadequate training then this could potentially cause financial losses including fines or damages payments which would need to be borne by the business itself.