Does General Liability Cover Subcontractor Injuries? Often Yes
Under the standard form, often yes. Say your subcontractor's worker is hurt on your job and sues you. The Employer's Liability exclusion in ISO's general liability form (CG 00 01 04 13) targets injury to your own "employee". [ISO CG 00 01 04 13 (Commercial General Liability Coverage Form) specimen, 2026-10] The sub's crew isn't on your payroll. Three things can flip that answer. One is an endorsement that excludes injury to contractors and their workers. Another is CG 21 39, which cuts coverage for indemnity you promised in a contract. The third is a state law that makes you the worker's statutory employer. The table below maps each one. Beaconcover isn't a broker, and this page doesn't review your policy.
Which clauses decide a subcontractor injury claim?
Seven provisions do most of the work. The first five sit in the base form and the last two are endorsements. State law comes after the table. Form text is from an ISO specimen of CG 00 01 04 13 [ISO CG 00 01 04 13 (Commercial General Liability Coverage Form) specimen, 2026-10] and of CG 21 39 10 93 [ISO CG 21 39 10 93 (Contractual Liability Limitation) specimen, 2026-10].
| Provision | What the wording says | Effect on the claim |
|---|---|---|
| Exclusion 2.e., Employer's Liability (CG 00 01) | Removes bodily injury to an "employee" of the insured arising out of employment, "whether the insured may be liable as an employer or in any other capacity", and any obligation to share damages with or repay someone else. | Bars your own staff's injuries. On the sub's policy, it also bars repaying you for its worker's injury, unless the 'insured contract' exception in the 2.b./9.f. row applies. |
| Definition 5, "Employee" (CG 00 01) | Includes a "leased worker". Does not include a "temporary worker". | Subcontractors and their crews are not named in the definition, which is why the exclusion stops at your own payroll. |
| Condition 7, Separation Of Insureds (CG 00 01) | The insurance applies "separately to each insured against whom claim is made". | Read with 2.e.'s words "an 'employee' of the insured", each insured is tested on its own staff, so the question is whose employee the worker is. |
| Exclusion 2.b., Contractual Liability, and definition 9.f., "insured contract" (CG 00 01) | Liability assumed in a contract is excluded, except liability assumed in an "insured contract" when the injury happens after the contract is signed. Paragraph 9.f. covers the part of a business contract where you assume another party's tort liability. | Exclusion 2.e. also carves out liability assumed under an "insured contract". That carve-out is how a sub's policy can pay the GC's claim for indemnity after the sub's worker sues the GC. |
| Coverage C exclusion 2.b., Hired Person (CG 00 01) | Medical payments do not apply to "a person hired to do work for or on behalf of any insured". | Blocks no-fault medical payments to a sub you hired. For the sub's own crew, Coverage C exclusion 2.d. separately bars medical payments whenever workers' compensation benefits are payable, whether or not the person is anyone's employee. |
| CG 21 39, Contractual Liability Limitation | Replaces the "insured contract" definition with a shorter list, a. through e. Paragraph f. is gone. | The indemnity a sub promised in its subcontract is no longer insured, so the GC's indemnity claim lands on the sub's own balance sheet. |
| Carrier injury-to-contractor exclusions (no ISO form number; proprietary wording) | Exclude bodily injury to contractors, subcontractors or their workers. | Removes the coverage the base form gives the GC for a sub's worker. Scope depends on each carrier's wording. |
Two policies are in play. Your GL answers the injured worker's lawsuit against you. The sub's GL answers your demand that the sub pay you back, but only through the "insured contract" door.
Why does the sub's indemnity promise matter so much?
Because the sub's own policy blocks every other route. Exclusion 2.e. applies to "any obligation to share damages with or repay someone else", and its only exception is "liability assumed by the insured under an 'insured contract'" [ISO CG 00 01 04 13 specimen, exclusion 2.e., 2026-10]. A written subcontract in which the sub assumes your tort liability is that insured contract, under paragraph 9.f. Without one, a claim from you against the sub for its worker's injury meets the exclusion.
So the indemnity clause in your subcontract decides which insurer pays. Ask whether the sub's policy still carries paragraph 9.f. before the sub starts.
What do CG 21 39 and injury-to-contractor exclusions remove?
They close the two routes a GC counts on: its own GL for the worker's suit, and the sub's GL for the indemnity. Amwins, a wholesale broker, lists CG 21 39 (10/93) among 11 common contractor GL restrictions and says it "eliminates section f." of the insured contract definition, removing most contractual coverage [Amwins: Contractor's General Liability, 11 Common Coverage Limitation Endorsements, 2026-10]. The same article describes subcontractor and independent-contractor injury endorsements that typically eliminate "Action Over" coverage for injury to independent contractors, which it calls a major gap for contractors who use subs.
These injury exclusions are carrier forms, not ISO forms, so the wording varies and courts read it closely. In U.S. Liability Insurance Co. v. Benchmark Construction Services (1st Cir. 2015), the architect hired the painter, not the general contractor or its subs. The painter's employee fell from scaffolding and sued the GC. The court found the carrier's contractor-injury exclusion ambiguous and read "contractor" as covering only people hired directly by the policyholder [Hunton: First Circuit limits scope of CGL policy's employer liability exclusionary endorsement, 2026-10]. That reading protected the GC, because the painter's employee came in through the architect's contract. It does not help with a sub the GC hired directly.
How does the statutory employer rule shift the claim?
It can move the claim to workers' comp. In Florida, when a contractor sublets part of its contract work, "the contractor shall be liable for, and shall secure, the payment of compensation" to the subcontractor's employees, unless the sub has secured it [Florida Statutes s. 440.10(1)(b), 2026-10]. The same section requires the contractor to get evidence of the sub's workers' comp insurance. Section 440.11(1) makes an employer's liability under 440.10 exclusive of all other liability to the employee [Florida Statutes s. 440.11, 2026-10].
General liability stays out of that obligation by design. Exclusion 2.d. removes "any obligation of the insured under a workers' compensation" law [ISO CG 00 01 04 13 specimen, exclusion 2.d., 2026-10]. A Florida GC with an uninsured sub is buying that exposure through its workers' comp policy, which is why GCs collect certificates from every sub. The independent contractor workers' comp page covers the sub's side of that demand.
Why does New York produce so many action-over claims?
New York puts the safety duty on the GC and limits suits against the injured worker's employer. Labor Law §240(1) requires "all contractors and owners and their agents" to furnish or erect protective devices for workers [New York Labor Law §240, 2026-10]. Workers' Compensation Law §11 then bars contribution or indemnity claims against the worker's employer unless the worker suffered a listed "grave injury" [New York Workers' Compensation Law §11, 2026-10].
The same section carves out claims based on "a written contract entered into prior to the accident" in which the employer expressly agreed to indemnify. That is the insured contract again. For an ordinary injury in New York, a signed indemnity clause is the GC's contractual route back to the sub. If the sub's policy carries CG 21 39, that promise is uninsured.
Frequently asked questions
Under the standard CG 00 01 form it can, because the Employer's Liability exclusion targets your own employees. An endorsement excluding injury to contractors or their workers removes that coverage, so check your endorsement schedule.
The faulty-work side of subcontractor risk, where a sub's work damages the project rather than a person, is a separate set of clauses covered in does general liability cover faulty workmanship. The general liability page and the coverage library map the adjacent lines.
Not a broker. Beaconcover is an independent comparison site. We are not a licensed insurance broker, agent, or adviser; we route you to providers and do not sell, bind, or advise on policies, and nothing here is legal or tax advice. Coverage, price, and requirements vary by state, profession, payroll, and underwriting. See /methodology/ and /disclosure/. Last reviewed: 2026-10-13.