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Supreme Court hears Barnardo’s RPI/CPI Appeal

Posted on Jun 26th, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Pay, benefits and bonuses, Pensions, Uncategorized

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Dentons' Reward team are advising the Representative Beneficiaries of the Barnardo's Staff Pension Scheme ("the Scheme") in an application to the Supreme Court to decide whether the Scheme rules permit a switch from RPI to CPI for revaluation or indexation of pension payments.
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Supreme Court hears Barnardo’s RPI/CPI Appeal

All workers to benefit from the right to an itemized payslip

Verity Buckingham

Posted on May 16th, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Employment Documents, Government Proposals, Legislative Changes, Pay, benefits and bonuses

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An Order for an amendment to the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) has now been made. The Order will grant every worker the right to an itemised pay statement from 6 April 2019.
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All workers to benefit from the right to an itemized payslip

The gig economy – focus on the future

Claire McKee

Posted on May 10th, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Employment Status

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As the gig economy has grown and developed, so too has the law relating to so-called "gig workers" and how their employment status should be regarded. As we have reported previously, in November last year, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) rejected app-based taxi firm Uber's appeal against the Employment Tribunal's (ET) earlier decision that its drivers should be categorised as workers rather than self-employed contractors.
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The gig economy – focus on the future

Taylor Review – update

Verity Buckingham

Posted on Apr 20th, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Employment Status, Government Proposals, Holiday pay, National Minimum Wage, Pay, benefits and bonuses

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The House of Commons Work and Pensions and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committees (the Committees) made recommendations in November 2017 for addressing the issues raised in the Taylor Review. These included:
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Taylor Review – update

Improving the Pensions Regulator– Increase Powers or Increase Resource?

Posted on Mar 29th, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Pay, benefits and bonuses, Pensions, Uncategorized

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Recent high profile insolvencies (e.g. Carillion and BHS) have seen widespread criticism of the Pensions Regulator ("TPR"). It stands charged with failure to use its intervention powers despite being aware of companies prioritising dividends over deficit recovery contributions, despite trustees urging it to intervene. By the time TPR took action it was too late.
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Improving the Pensions Regulator– Increase Powers or Increase Resource?

Fathers and the Workplace

Posted on Mar 22nd, 2018 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Family friendly rights, Flexible working, Pay, benefits and bonuses

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The Women and Equalities Committee has published a report highlighting what it sees as the difficulties that fathers face in balancing their careers with childcare responsibilities. The report makes a series of proposals which aim to put men and women on a more equal footing when it comes to maternity and paternity leave. The most headline grabbing recommendation is that fathers should receive one month's leave at 90% of their salary (capped for higher earners) when their wife or partner has a baby and a further two months of paternity leave at £141 a week, without any loss of rights for the mother.
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Fathers and the Workplace

Simple steps to keep your workforce healthy

Verity Buckingham

Posted on Dec 13th, 2017 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Employee welfare, Health and safety

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Please read Gina Unterhalter's article for People Management here...
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Simple steps to keep your workforce healthy

King v. Sash Windows judgment leaves employers vulnerable to backdated holiday claims

Tom Fancett

Posted on Dec 4th, 2017 By

Categories: Employee benefits, Employment Status, Holiday pay

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In King v. Sash Windows, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that anyone deemed to have "worker" status is entitled to carry over paid annual holiday in circumstances where they have not had the opportunity to take it.
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King v. Sash Windows judgment leaves employers vulnerable to backdated holiday claims

The Real Living Wage has increased, but is it actually benefitting employees?

Posted on Nov 9th, 2017 By

Categories: Compensation, Employee benefits, Legislative Changes, Pay, benefits and bonuses

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Earlier this week it was announced that the Real Living Wage has been increased from £8.45 to £8.75 per hour across the UK and from £9.75 to £10.20 per hour in London. The changes have been driven largely by inflation, higher private rents and transport costs, and the new figures have been calculated to reflect the actual cost of living required in order to sustain a decent quality of life in the UK and London.

However, the Real Living Wage remains voluntary, unlike the mandatory National Living Wage put in place by the Government. Further, despite more than one thousand employers signing up to pay the Real Living Wage since Living Wage Week last year (including Google and Ikea), 5.5 million people across the UK (comprising 21% of the workforce) are still being paid less than the Real Living Wage. One of the criticisms of the Living Wage campaign was that it targeted sectors that do not tend to have significant numbers of low paid staff – as such, it may not, as yet, have had the desired impact for those who need it the most.

Further, there have been questions around how employers are offsetting the additional cost of meeting the Real Living Wage – some employers have cut overall pay packages to mitigate the costs of increased pay, for example stopping overtime rates and cutting back hours. As such, the overall benefit being passed to employees is, in some cases, questionable.

On a more positive note, the increase in the Real Living Wage will see more than 150,000 employees get a pay rise, as more than 3,600 employers have now signed up to pay the Real Living Wage since it was introduced. Among these is Heathrow, which is set to become the first Real Living Wage airport by the end of 2020.

The Real Living Wage has increased, but is it actually benefitting employees?

People Management article, featuring Michael Bronstein

Posted on Sep 8th, 2017 By

Categories: Atypical workers, Employee benefits, Employee welfare, Employment Status, Government Proposals, Immigration, TUPE/outsourcing

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As you may have seen, People Management recently published an article on some of the big developments in employment law in 2017, particularly Brexit and the Taylor review. The discussion featured Michael Bronstein, a partner here at Dentons. Michael gave some insight on the potential effects of withdrawing from the EU on employment legislation, acknowledging that there is 'a common misconception that all employment rights are created by the EU'. In the lead up to triggering Article 50, the government maintained that there would not be any change to workers' rights following Brexit, so it would be brave to take away key protections, many of which derive from UK law anyway. Other commentators suggested there may be reforms to TUPE, although agreed that it will stay, but perhaps in a slightly amended form. As for a new visa regime for workers, the outcome is unclear. The uncertainty has already caused many workers to leave at a time where we are beginning to see a shortage of labour. This has not been helped by the recent leaked Home Office post-Brexit Immigration Policy which has confirmed the fears of employers with respect to the future of EU workers in the UK.
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People Management article, featuring Michael Bronstein