All articles by Tom Washington – Page 6
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KidsUnlimited adds wellbeing package to voucher scheme
KidsUnlimited is launching a product that integrates its childcare voucher scheme with a wellbeing package.Members of the scheme, which will be available to all its existing clients, will have access to a wellbeing and counselling hotline, provided by FirstAssist, as well as the Best Doctors service, which gives staff members ...
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Vodafone plans to close final salary pension to all staff
Vodafone has announced plans to close its final salary pension to future accrual.The mobile telecommunications giant informed around 4,000 active members of the defined benefit (DB) scheme in a letter earlier this week.A spokesman for Vodafone said the scheme's liabilities have become unsustainable. Company accounts showed the scheme had a ...
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Private sector defined benefit schemes still suffering, says NAPF
The recession has continued to take its toll on private sector defined benefit (DB) pension schemes, according to new research by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).The NAPF’s Annual Survey has revealed that 23% of schemes remain open to new members, compared to 28% a year ago.Further changes are ...
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Steve Bee to leave Scottish Life
Scottish Life, the pensions specialist arm of the Royal London Group, has announced that Steve Bee, head of pensions strategy, will be leaving on 20 January 2010.Bee has been with Scottish Life for more than 12 years. He said: “I’m going to be pretty busy over the next few weeks, ...
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Iron Mountain launches flexible benefits
Iron Mountain has appointed Aon Consulting to develop and implement a flexible benefits programme for its UK employees for the first time.In addition to traditional benefits such as life assurance, critical illness dental insurance and the ability to buy and sell holidays, the information protection and storage services firm added ...
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Senior executives share pain of the recession
Senior executives are sharing the pain of the recession felt by shareholders and other employees, with typically only finance directors receiving pay increases, according to Watson Wyatt's 2009 Executive Reward Survey.Salaries for UK executives were frozen in 2009, with the median salary increase for chief executives and other directors (but ...
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FTSE 350 could have pension deficit wrong by GBP40 million
FTSE 350 companies may be collectively overstating or understating their pension liabilities by as much as £40 billion.According to data analysed by the global consulting, outsourcing and investment services provider Mercer, at 31st March, the long-term price inflation assumptions of the FTSE 350 varied by 0.8% from 2.6% to 3.4% ...
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Queen's Speech outlines plans to tackle gender pay and bankers' bonuses
The Queen has outlined the government's plans to tackle the gender pay gap, improve working conditions for agency workers and crack down on bankers' bonuses in her speech at this year's State opening of parliament.Addressing the House of Commons, the Queen spoke of introducing the Equality Bill in order to ...
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Half of organisations to freeze pay in 2010
Half of UK employees will have their pay frozen in the next year, while only a small minority can expect a rise above the rate of inflation.Research by the CBI and recruitment firm Harvey Nash revealed that 47% of employers are planning to freeze pay altogether, while only 4% plan ...
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NAPF warns companies to curb pay
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has written to the chairmen of Britain’s top 350 companies urging executive pay restraint and making it clear that company remuneration should be aligned with the long-term interests of shareholders, including pension funds.The NAPF said that boards should pay close attention to how ...
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Gender pay gap narrows
The pay gap between male and female workers in full-time employment has narrowed in the past year. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the median hourly rate for men in full-time employment was £12.97 compared to £11.39 for women.This means the gender pay gap stands at ...
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FirstCare acquires Active Health Partners
Absence management provider FirstCare has acquired Active Health Partners (AHP), increasing the number of employees it services by 80%.The increased volume of real time absence management data – over 100,000 employees – gives FirstCare the ability to build on specialist knowledge and use data to help large businesses reduce sickness ...
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Logica UK pulls out of running for personal accounts administration
The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (Pada) has confirmed that Logica UK has withdrawn from the competitive dialogue process for scheme administration services.Tim Jones, PADA chief executive, said: "We wish to thank Logica and its key sub-contractors for their engagement with us. They are impressive organisations. We enjoyed working with them ...
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PPF announces levy calculation changes
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has published proposals for the 2011/12 pension protection levy year which improve the way it assesses the insolvency risk for sponsoring employers of pension schemes that pay the levy.These proposals reflect industry feedback and a review of methodology and insolvency probabilities carried out by Dun ...
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Workers confused over UK retirement age
Only a third of workers think that they will work until they are over 65 and just one in ten believes they will still be working in their 70s, according to research by Croner.The survey, which questioned almost 1,400 UK working adults, found that 22% see themselves working until 60 ...
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Pauline Sibbit elected as chairman of the Association of Pension Lawyers
Pauline Sibbit, partner at Sacker and Partners, has been elected as chairman of the Association of Pension Lawyers (APL) for a two-year period.Sibbit, who became a partner at Sackers in 1990, officially takes up the position following the 25th APL AGM on Friday 6 November. Her election comes following several ...
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More than a third of all sick leave is taken on a Monday, says Mercer
More than a third of all sick leave is taken on a Monday, according to new sickness management research by Mercer.January is the month with the highest level of sickness absence, with sick leave averaging half a day per person for the month. On 3 and 4 January, nearly 5% ...
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Trinity Mirror to close defined benefit pension to existing members
Trinity Mirror has announced plans to close its defined benefit pension plan to existing members claiming it can no longer afford to provide the scheme.The publishing group is entering a two-month consultation period with employees over its proposal to close the scheme to future accrual. About 3,000 of its 7,000 ...
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Fujitsu Services staff set to strike over pay, pensions and jobs
Employees at IT firm Fujitsu Services are to go on a three-day strike next week following a dispute over pay, pensions and jobs.The strike is set to commence on 12 November following around 700 of the firm's 1,596 union members voting in favour of industrial action.Unite is protesting at plans ...
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Pay freezes could end in 2010
Pay freezes could come to an end next year as employers sense renewed optimism about the state of the economy, according to Mercer’s Salary Indicator (MSI) report, which monitors the remuneration of major UK blue chip organisations on a quarterly basis.The survey began in the first quarter (Q1) of 2009 ...