LEGISLATION

Stakeholder Pensions

The Pensions Regulator, OPRA, is targeting businesses in specific regions and sending them surveys to complete to find out if they are offering their employees pension schemes as required under the Stakeholder legislation. An OPRA spokeswoman said "If we find companies do not send back their survey forms or are unwilling to comply then we will have a talk with them and possibly fine them. If companies are not complying we are happy for them to contact us about what they should do." OPRA will start with the North East this month and the exercise will take about one year to complete.

OPRA has power to fine non-complying employers up to £50,000. So far, no fines have been levied but this is clearly an indication that in future OPRA will be taking a tougher stance on employers who do not comply with the legislation.

If you are unsure whether the legislation applies to you, OPRA have prepared a useful decision tree which can be found at http://stakeholder.opra.gov.uk/decisiontree/index.asp

Alternatively, you can contact our Pensions Unit by sending an e-mail to john.dorney@cobbetts.co.uk

Director’s Remuneration

Patricia Hewitt announced on 3 June 2003 that the Department for Trade and Industry have launched a consultation entitled ‘Rewards for Success’. The aim of the consultation process is to establish best practise to ensure amongst other things that Directors who poorly perform are not awarded excessive termination packages on their departure.

The consultation paper can be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/cld/4864rewards.pdf

Agency Workers

Despite their meeting on 3 June the EU Council of Ministers have failed to reach agreement on the proposed directive for rights of agency workers. The intention of the directive is to afford agency workers the same rights as permanent workers. Bite size will keep you updated on the progress of the directive.

Data Protection

Part 3 of the Data Protection Code on Employment Practices has now been issued. This part of the code deals with employers monitoring employees at work and in particular establishes when and how an employer can monitor an employee and how to deal with any information obtained during the process.

The code provides, amongst other things, that employers:

• should make an assessment of the impact that monitoring may have on a worker’s life and consider whether the business needs outweigh this prior to commencing any monitoring. If on balance the needs of the business outweigh any interference to the worker then the employer can monitor the worker;
• should only use information discovered for the reason for which the monitoring was carried out;
• should ensure that any information obtained is kept secure and if necessary restrict access to it;
• should take extra care when monitoring personal communications which are clearly marked as such; and
• should tell workers if they are being monitored and only undertake covert monitoring in the most exceptional circumstances.

The new code can be viewed at http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/dpr/dpdoc.nsf

TUPE and Occupational Pension Schemes

The government have announced that they intend to implement legislation so that TUPE will apply to private occupational pension schemes, which are at present specifically excluded. It seems likely that one of the changes will require a new employer to continue to pay the same contributions as the previous employer up to a capped percentage. In addition it seems likely that measures will be brought in to cover members of pension schemes where an employer has become insolvent.

Full details of the government proposals can be found at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/consult/2002/pensions/actionplanfull.pdf

Work and Family Life Balance

The DTI has issued a consultation paper, which sets out the government’s strategy for helping working parents and the next steps following the recent introduction of various family friendly legislation.

The full consultation paper can be viewed at http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/inform.htm