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Category Archives: Employment and Benefits

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Pension Superfunds Return to the De-Risking Menu

The UK government has signalled the importance of introducing a permanent superfund regulatory regime. By Victoria Sander After the excitement around Clara-Pensions’ approval as a “superfund”, or pension consolidator, in late 2021, the market generally expected that other pension superfund structures would soon follow suit. Last year’s mini-budget and the ensuing liability-driven investment (LDI) crisis, … Continue Reading

Reducing Socioeconomic Bias in the UK Financial Services Sector: Emerging Best Practice

The Financial Services Skills Commission has issued an insight paper outlining how companies can collect and evaluate data on employees’ socioeconomic backgrounds. By David Berman, Nicola Higgs, Rob Moulton, and Dianne Bell Socioeconomic backgrounds of employees and socioeconomic diversity at senior levels across the UK financial services industry is beginning to feature more prominently in … Continue Reading

Italian COVID-19 Law Decree Suspends Terms of All Administrative Procedures

The Cura Italia Decree also extends the validity of administrative authorizations. By Cesare Milani On March 17, 2020, the Italian government adopted Law Decree No. 18/2020 (the Cura Italia Decree), providing for a contingency package of extraordinary measures to strengthen the national health service and provide financial and economic support to families, workers, and companies … Continue Reading

US Baseball Scandal Provides Valuable Lessons on Corporate Culture

The Commissioner held senior leadership accountable for illegal “sign-stealing”, even though the conduct generally involved players and low-level operations employees. By Nathan H. Seltzer, David Berman, Christopher D’Agostino, and Nell Perks On 13 January 2020, the Major League Baseball Commissioner handed down significant punishment (including fines and suspension) to the Houston Astros baseball team and … Continue Reading

Lessons for UK Companies From US DOJ Guidance on Corporate Compliance Programs

The DOJ’s recently updated guidance poses helpful questions for UK corporates evaluating the effectiveness of their internal compliance programmes. By Stuart Alford QC, Erin Brown Jones, and Nathan H. Seltzer It is well known that a corporate’s failure to prevent offences can be answered with a defence of “adequate procedures” in a case of bribery … Continue Reading

Addressing Pensions Liabilities for Underperforming Portfolio Companies

By Catherine Drinnan and Shaun Thompson This year has seen a significant number of business failures, particularly on the high street, as businesses have struggled in the face of market fragility and Brexit uncertainty. When a UK portfolio company is underperforming, the presence of a defined benefit pension (DB) plan with a large deficit can … Continue Reading

Addressing Pensions Liabilities for Underperforming Companies

By Catherine Drinnan, Shaun Thompson, Richard Butterwick, Terry Charalambous, and Catherine Campbell This year has seen a significant number of business failures, particularly on the high street, as businesses have struggled in the face of market fragility and Brexit uncertainty. When a UK company is underperforming, the presence of a defined benefit pension (DB) plan … Continue Reading

Traditional UK Employment Law Means Gig Economy Could Be Hard Work for Private Equity

By Sarah Gadd Companies that operate in the “gig economy”, using a largely self-employed workforce, have enjoyed enormous growth in recent years but in the UK, these companies have come into conflict with long-established UK employment law. In our view, current laws are not fully equipped to deal with new staffing models in which staff … Continue Reading

Spotlight Turns on Corporate Responsibility in Italy as Italian Parliament Reviews New Draft Law Proposals

By Cesare Milani As corporate responsibility and business integrity become increasingly important to global commercial businesses, Italy has responded domestically with a review of two key laws which may significantly impact Italian companies. Italian Legislative No. 231 dated June 8, 2001 (Decree 231) Decree 231 has been in force for seventeen years and is likely … Continue Reading

Potential Liability for Ignoring Non-Financial Factors in Investment Starts With Climate Change

By Paul Davies and Michael Green Commercial risks to businesses can no longer be neatly divided into financial and non-financial considerations. For example, there is growing recognition, particularly in the pensions sector, that a failure to take account for environmental and social governance (ESG) risks (in particular, climate change risks) can result in adverse financial … Continue Reading

EU Workplace Pensions Now Required to Incorporate ESG Issues

By Paul Davies and Michael Green A new pensions directive was passed by the European Parliament on 24 November securing 512 votes (only 77 votes against and 40 abstentions), requiring EU workplace pension funds to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. This is considered a ‘landmark’ moment for responsible investment. The new pensions directive … Continue Reading

Holiday Pay: Clear Blue Skies Ahead?

By Catherine Drinnan Paying employees for their annual leave in the UK used to be viewed as a straightforward process, with many companies calculating holiday pay at the employee’s basic pay rate. However, in 2014, several employment law cases raised the issue of whether, during annual leave, employees should also receive an amount in respect … Continue Reading

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