Agreement between User and Work Shield, Inc.
Welcome to www.workshield.com. Each of the www.workshield.com and www.workshieldportal.com websites (collectively, this “Site”) is comprised of various web pages operated by Work Shield, Inc. (“Work Shield”). Both www.workshield.com and www.workshieldportal.com are offered to you conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein (the “Terms”). Your use of this Site constitutes your acknowledgment and agreement to all such Terms. Please read these terms carefully and keep a copy of them for your reference.
Both www.workshield.com and www.workshieldportal.com are Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Incident Reporting Sites.
Work Shield provides employers an Employer Harassment and Discrimination Protection Plan (“EHP Plan”) that (i) allows employees a safe, secure method to report workplace harassment and discrimination incidents without fear of retaliation or of these incidents being “swept under the rug”, and (ii) removes the employer from investigating or handling workplace harassment and/or discrimination incidents or reports and allows Work Shield and its trained attorneys to investigate, report and recommend what actions should be taken for each reported incident (collectively, the “Service”). The Service also includes such Services related to Title VII and Title IX issues, as well as whistleblowing, ethics and fraud incidents, as applicable.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE NOTE THAT GOING TO YOUR HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT, MANAGER, OR YOUR SUPERVISOR FAILS TO QUALIFY AS EXHAUSTING YOUR ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY GIVEN YOUR COMPANY’S INCORPORATION OF THE EHP PLAN AND WORK SHIELD’S SERVICES. YOU MUST FILE AN INCIDENT REPORT FORM (IRF) IN ORDER TO HAVE ANY WORKPLACE HARASSMENT OR DISCRIMINATION ISSUE ADDRESSED AND/OR RESOLVED. THIS IS THE ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY AVAILABLE TO ALL EMPLOYEES. AGAIN, NOT REPORTING YOUR HARASSMENT OR DISCRIMINATION INCIDENT TO WORK SHIELD VIA AN IRF DOES NOT EXHAUST THE ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY AVAILABLE TO YOU. PLEASE REPORT TO WORK SHIELD ANY ISSUES YOU MAY ENCOUNTER.
FURTHERMORE, REPORTING AN ANONYMOUS IRF DOES NOT EXHAUST YOUR ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDY AVAILABLE TO YOU. TO DO SO, YOU MUST FILE AN IRF WITH FULL, IDENTIFYING INFORMATION IN ORDER FOR YOU TO EXHAUST SUCH ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES AVAILABLE TO YOU.
Privacy
Your use of this Site is subject to Work Shield’s Privacy Policy. Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs this Site and informs users of our data collection practices.
Electronic Communications
Visiting this Site or sending emails to Work Shield constitutes electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that Work Shield provides to you electronically, via email and on this Site, satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
Your Account
If you use this Site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and associated password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You may not assign or otherwise transfer your account to any other person or entity. You acknowledge that Work Shield is not responsible for third-party access to your account that results from theft or misappropriation of your account. Work Shield and its associates reserve the right to refuse or cancel service, terminate accounts, or remove or edit content at our sole discretion.
Children Under Thirteen
Work Shield does not knowingly collect, either online or offline, personal information from persons under the age of thirteen. If you are under thirteen, you may use this Site only with permission of a parent or guardian.
Links to Third-Party Sites/Third-Party Services
This Site may contain links to other websites (“Linked Sites”). Linked Sites are not under the control of Work Shield and Work Shield is not responsible for the content of any Linked Site, including, without limitation, any link contained in a Linked Site, or any changes or updates to a Linked Site. Work Shield is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Work Shield of this Site or any association with its operators.
Certain services made available via this Site are delivered by third party sites and organizations. By using any product, service or functionality originating from the www.workshield.com or www.workshieldportal.com domains, you hereby acknowledge and expressly agree that Work Shield may share such information and data with any third party with whom Work Shield has a contractual relationship to provide the requested product, service or functionality on behalf of this Site’s users and customers.
No Unlawful or Prohibited Use/Intellectual Property
You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use this Site strictly in accordance with these terms of use. As a condition of your use of this Site, you represent and warrant to Work Shield that you will not use this Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. You may not use this Site in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair this Site or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of this Site. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through this Site.
All content included as part of the Service, such as text, graphics, logos, images, as well as the compilation thereof, and any software used on this Site, is the property of Work Shield or its suppliers and protected by trademark, copyright and other applicable laws that protect intellectual property and its associated proprietary rights. You agree to observe and abide by all trademark, copyright and other proprietary notices, legends or other restrictions contained in any such content and will not make any changes thereto.
You will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part, found on this Site. Work Shield content is not for resale. Your use of this Site does not entitle you to make any unauthorized use of any protected content, and in particular you will not delete or alter any proprietary rights or attribution notices in any content. You will use protected content solely for your personal use and will make no other use of the content without the express written permission of Work Shield and, as applicable, the intellectual property owner. You agree that you do not acquire any ownership rights in any protected content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Work Shield or our licensors except as expressly authorized by these Terms and Conditions.
Third-Party Accounts
You will be able to connect your Work Shield account to third-party accounts. By connecting your Work Shield account to your third-party account, you acknowledge and agree that you are consenting to the continuous release of information about you to others (in accordance with your privacy settings on those third-party sites). If you do not want information about you to be shared in this manner, do not use this feature.
International UsersThe Service is controlled, operated and administered by Work Shield from our offices within the USA. If you access the Service from a location outside the USA, you are responsible for compliance with all local laws. You agree that you will not use Work Shield content accessed through www.workshield.com or www.workshieldportal.com in any country or in any manner prohibited by any applicable laws, restrictions or regulations.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Work Shield, its officers, directors, employees, agents and third parties, for any losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees) relating to or arising out of your use of or inability to use this Site or services, any user postings made by you, your violation of any terms of this Agreement or your violation of any rights of a third party, or your violation of any applicable laws, rules or regulations. Work Shield reserves the right, at its own cost, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with Work Shield in asserting any available defenses.
Arbitration
In the event the parties are not able to resolve any dispute between them arising out of or concerning these Terms and Conditions, or any provisions hereof, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise at law or in equity for damages or any other relief, then such dispute shall be resolved only by final and binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, conducted by a single neutral arbitrator and administered by the American Arbitration Association, or a similar arbitration service selected by the parties, in a location mutually agreed upon by the parties. The arbitrator’s award shall be final, and judgment may be entered upon it in any court having jurisdiction. In the event that any legal or equitable action, proceeding or arbitration arises out of or concerns these Terms and Conditions, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. The parties agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims in regard to these Terms and Conditions or any disputes arising as a result of these Terms and Conditions, whether directly or indirectly, including tort claims that are a result of these Terms and Conditions. The parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision. The entire dispute, including the scope and enforceability of this arbitration provision shall be determined by the Arbitrator. This arbitration provision shall survive the termination of these Terms and Conditions.
Class Action Waiver
Any arbitration under these Terms and Conditions will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class/representative/collective actions are not permitted. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT A PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN EACH INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PUTATIVE CLASS, COLLECTIVE AND/ OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, SUCH AS IN THE FORM OF A PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION AGAINST THE OTHER. Further, unless both you and Work Shield agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.
Liability Disclaimer
THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS SITE MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. WORK SHIELD AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THIS SITE AT ANY TIME.
WORK SHIELD AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THIS SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. THE WORK SHIELD AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL WORK SHIELD AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SITE, WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SITE OR RELATED SERVICES, THE PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS OBTAINED THROUGH THIS SITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF WORK SHIELD OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES/JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF THIS SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THIS SITE.
Use Alone Does Not Exhaust Administrative Remedies
Your use of this Site, either through an identified or the anonymous filing of an incident report, does not constitute an exhaustion of any employer administrative remedies otherwise available to you. As mentioned above, you must file an IRF to begin exhaustion of your available administrative remedy for reporting any form of workplace harassment or discrimination issues.
Termination/Access Restriction
Work Shield reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to this Site and the related services or any portion thereof at any time, without notice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Texas and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Texas in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Site. Use of this Site is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these Terms and Conditions, including, without limitation, this section.
You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Work Shield as a result of these Terms and Conditions or use of this Site. Work Shield’s performance is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of Work Shield’s right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of this Site or information provided to or gathered by Work Shield with respect to such use. If any part of Terms and Conditions is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the Terms and Conditions shall continue in effect.
Unless otherwise specified herein, these Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement between the user and Work Shield with respect to this Site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and Work Shield with respect to this Site. A printed version of these Terms and Conditions and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. It is the express wish of the parties bound by these Terms and Conditions and all related documents be written in English.
Changes to Terms and Conditions
Work Shield reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change these Terms and Conditions under which www.workshield.com and www.workshieldportal.com are offered. The most current version of the Terms and Conditions will supersede all previous versions. Work Shield encourages you to periodically review the Terms and Conditions to stay informed of our updates.
Contact Information
Work Shield welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Terms and Conditions:
Work Shield, Inc.
300 Crescent Court, Suite 875
Dallas, Texas 75201
Email Address: hello@workshield.com
Telephone number: 866.946.5558
Effective as of November 2023
