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27 Apr 2018
by Rebecca Patton

At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week 20-26 April 2018

Your quick-read round up of the reward and benefits stories appearing in the press in the past seven days.

The headlines you might have missed between 20-26 April.

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University of Exeter enhances paid parental leave benefits
Employee Benefits: The University of Exeter has enhanced its paid parental leave benefits to offer male and female employees six months of maternity and paternity leave at full pay as a day one benefit. Read story

Private hire taxi firms to face legal action in employment status claims
Employee Benefits: Taxi organisations A2B, Blacklane and Green Tomato Cars are to face legal action over the employment status of its drivers and their entitlement to employment rights, such as the national minimum wage and holiday pay. Read story 

What is the purpose of a pension scheme?
Professional Pensions: British Airways and the trustees of one of its pension schemes are set to argue over the purpose of a pension scheme, leading to an impactful judgment for DB pensions. James Phillips explores the issue. Read story

Treasury rules out review of ditched secondary annuity market
Professional Pensions: The Treasury has reaffirmed its decision against rolling out freedoms to the annuity market, arguing it would be impossible to balance consumer protections with a functioning market. Read story

Alan Hughes: Triage service will relieve DB transfer pressure
Money Marketing: Putting the right people off transferring at the outset will be hugely valuable to the industry but there are issues to address. Read story 

IP should come as standard say a third of workers
Corporate Adviser: A third of all adults believe income protection should come as standard in benefits packages, according to research from Zurich. Read story

Salary sacrifice and pensions: The lowdown
HR Magazine: Using salary sacrifice agreements as a way to increase pension contributions could be lucrative for both employer and employee. Read story

The latest employee benefit trends
Incentive and Motivation: What are the latest employee benefit trends? We thought that the best person to ask would be the HR Director at one of the leading UK provider of employee services, Personal Group. Luckily, she had 3 key takeaways you can implement today. Read story

Employers neglecting employees’ financial needs
Reward: Financial pressures are mounting and yet UK employers are failing to offer staff sufficient financial support in the workplace. Read story

The monetary gap that isn’t just about pay
Reward: All the statistics show that women are saving less than men. So, what can employers do to help? And how can financial wellness strategies be improved to better serve women’s needs? Sara Benwell explores. Read story

Amazon boss pockets 1.2 million times more than average worker pay
HR Grapevine: It is probably no surprise that Jeff Bezos, the Founder of internet shopping giant Amazon, is worth a fortune. Read story

Vauxhall awards pay deal to 1,400 Luton-based employees
Employee Benefits: Car manufacturing organisation Vauxhall has awarded a 1.5% pay increase to 1,400 employees based at its van plant in Luton. Read story

Court of Appeal rules against Nottingham City Council in pay progression case
Employee Benefits:  The Court of Appeal has ruled that Nottingham City Council was in breach of contract for failing to award employees incremental pay progression increases. Read story

Two scammers jailed after coaxing savers to transfer £1m to fake scheme
Professional Pensions: Two men were sentenced to jail after luring 16 victims into transferring nearly £1m of their pensions into a non-existent occupational scheme in an "elaborate" liberation scam. Read story

Are we on the cusp of a mental health crisis?
HR Magazine: As work grows more unstable and NHS provision falters, are we approaching a mental health perfect storm? Read story

Rise of the ‘total rewards’ era with flex benefits most wanted for employees
Incentive and Motivation: Employees and employers prefer variable pay and flexi benefits with salary, according to a new report by human resources firm TeamLease Services. In fact, the variable pay for senior management has risen to 25-30 percent from 18-20 percent. We took a look at some of the interesting stats from the research. Read story

The latest employee benefit trends
Incentive and Motovation: What are the latest employee benefit trends? We thought that the best person to ask would be the HR Director at one of the leading UK provider of employee services, Personal Group. Luckily, she had 3 key takeaways you can implement today. Read story

State pension costs continue to rise
Money Marketing: The Department for Work and Pensions expects to spend £96.6bn on the state pension in 2018/19, a 3 per cent increase on the year before. Read story

Gender pay gap: the legal profession’s full results
The Lawyer: With gender pay gap reporting now complete, where does your firm sit in the grand scheme of things? Read story

TPR to prosecute brewery for failing to provide financial information
Professional Pensions: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is to prosecute Samuel Smith Old Brewery and chairman Humphrey Smith for failing to provide information and documents for an ongoing investigation. Read story

Aspen launches online financial education programme
Employee Benefits: Insurance and reinsurance organisation Aspen has launched an online financial education programme for its 700 UK employees. Read story

44% believe a 25% pay rise would improve their happiness at work
Employee Benefits: More than two fifths (44%) of employees believe that receiving a 25% pay rise would have the biggest impact on improving their happiness at work, according to research by One4all Rewards. Read story

Zero-hours contracts rose by 100,000 in 2017
HR Magazine: Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows rise in contracts without guaranteed hours but warns figures should be treated with caution. Read story

High Court rules against statutory limit for overpayment recovery
Pensions Expert: The High Court has ruled that defined benefit schemes are not subject to a time limit on their ability to recoup pension overpayments. Such a recovery must be carried out equitably by altering future payments, however. Read story

Building the business case for: Voluntary Benefits
Reward: Helping employees to customise what they receive in the way of rewards is proving increasingly popular, as Kimberley Dondo explains. Read story

Overcoming the cost of employee absence
Reward: Recent news has revealed an increase in staff absence has disrupted businesses but what can businesses do to tackle employee absence? Read story

Two thirds of UK employers offer no financial guidance
Cover: More than two thirds (67%) of UK employers do not offer any form of financial guidance to their employees, research suggests. Read story

University of London outsourced workers strike to gain employment rights
Employee Benefits: Workers employed by outsourcing organisations that have contracts with the University of London, and who are members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), are undertaking a two-day strike in a dispute over employment rights. Read story

Lendlease, PepsiCo and Royal Mail are among 2018’s top employers for women
Employee Benefits: BT, Co-op, Lendlease (pictured), PepsiCo, Royal Mail and Vodafone are among the UK organisations that feature in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2018 list, compiled by The Times and Business in the Community (BITC). Read story

Bus company could lose licence after AE failure
Professional Pensions: Bus company Stotts Tours (Oldham) faces the prospect of losing its operating licence after deliberately failing to enrol its eligible workers into a pension scheme. Read story

Tax self-employed 'engagers' to fund AE scheme, thinktank says
Professional Pensions: It has again been suggested self-employed workers could enjoy pension provision through the tax return process. James Phillips explores the latest proposals. Read story

Do HR leaders feel prepared to reskill employees?
HR Magazine: Businesses are taking steps to embrace innovation but are held back by skills and lack of digital tools. Read story

Government plans to introduce pay ratio reporting ‘within months’
People Management: Disclosing CEO-to-worker ratios ‘will increase transparency’ – but some remain sceptical about whether figures will be meaningful. Read story

Wunderman CEO on improving workplace mental health
HR Grapevine: The state of the nation’s mental health is, rightly so, a hot topic. And, with the UK’s productivity levels on a relative decline compared to our European neighbours, the two are increasingly being looked at in conjunction – as parts of the same puzzle. Read story

Firms should contribute to self-employed pension auto-enrolment scheme
Personnel Today: Organisations that use self-employed labour should pay a tax that would help fund a pension auto-enrolment scheme for freelance workers, a think tank has suggested. Read story

Gender pay gap investigations to begin in June, warns EHRC
Personnel Today: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the Government stating that its first gender pay gap investigations will begin in June. Read story

CMA working papers show no concerns over market concentration
Professional Pensions: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published three working papers as part of its probe into investment consultants and fiduciary managers - saying it has no concerns over concentration in these markets. Read story

Median gross base salary for UK entry level roles is £26,000
Employee Benefits: The median gross base salary for entry level professionals in the UK is £26,000 a year, according to research by Willis Towers Watson. Read story

GoCompare enhances parental leave policies
Employee Benefits: Financial services organisation GoCompare has enhanced its parental leave policies for its 240 employees based in South Wales. Read story

University of Bath to pay voluntary living wage
Employee Benefits: The University of Bath is to pay its employees, more than 300 of whom are members of the trade union Unison, the voluntary living wage rate of £8.75 an hour from 1 May 2018. Read story

Salvus consolidates £7m Complete Master Trust
Professional Pensions: The Salvus Master Trust will welcome another 1,200 members and 20 employers as it absorbs the £7m Complete Master Trust. Read story

Master trust is best arrangement for DC, say most respondents
Professional Pensions: In this week's Pensions Buzz, we wanted to know whether contract-based, trust-based or a master trust arrangement would be best for a new defined contribution (DC) scheme. Read story

Pensions minister holds hope for new guidance body by winter
Money Marketing: Pensions minister Guy Opperman is hoping the single financial guidance body will be established by winter. Read story

Getting better value health checks
HR Magazine: Many of the existing offerings may offer little benefit to individuals, employers and the overall healthcare budget. Read story

Empowering employees to ask for a rise
Incentive and Motivation: Wages have become a hot topic of late. From the UK pay squeeze to the gender pay gap, what people are paid has been firmly thrust into the spotlight. Yet, asking for a pay rise continues to be a nerve-wracking prospect for many employees. Read story

Pay awards at 2.5% for third consecutive quarter
Personnel Today: Pay awards in the first quarter of 2018 stood at an average of 2.5% for the third consecutive rolling quarter, according to XpertHR. Read story

Artificial intelligence: 'First ever' self-service tool for SME employees
Cover: Financial wellbeing app service offering financial advice on pensions and savings, and featuring a chatbot called Ava. Read story