Employer Perspectives

News and Views on Employment and Pensions Issues

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Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme update: UK Government guidance, 11 November 2020

November 11, 2020

On 5 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“furlough scheme”) would be extended to 31 March 2021. On 11 November, HMRC provided updated guidance which sets out detailed information on the extended furlough scheme. As outlined in our previous post, the furlough scheme will remain open for a further five months, until the end of March 2021. This means furlough will have been in place…

Employer Perspectives

Further extension of Furlough

By Sophie Miller-Molloy

November 5, 2020

Further to our earlier post on the month-long extension of the Furlough Scheme until December (link below), Rishi Sunak has announced today (5 November 2020) that the Furlough Scheme will now be available for companies until next Spring. The Government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to £2,500 a month for those unable to work until the end of March 2021, a year after it was first introduced. All employers will have to…

Employer Perspectives

Extension of the Furlough Scheme update

By Sarah Reeve-Young

November 4, 2020

Furlough extended As we wrote in our post on 22 October 2020, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”), known as the furlough scheme, was due to end on 31 October 2020. Its replacement – the Job Retention Scheme (“JSS”) – was due to come into effect on 1 November 2020. However, on the day it was due to close, the UK Government announced that the furlough scheme would be extended. The objective of the extension…

Employer Perspectives

€35 million fine issued under GDPR for employee monitoring and IT security failings in Germany

By Francesca Ingham & Miriam Bruce

October 29, 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, data privacy – and, in particular, employee data privacy – has been at the forefront of employers’ minds. In the last six months, employers across the globe have been required to give careful thought to a whole host of potential issues, from contact tracing apps to temperature and other health checks in the workplace, as well as processing an increasing volume of health data of its staff.　 Whilst not COVID-19 related,…

Employer Perspectives

Home and Away

By Sophie Miller-Molloy

October 26, 2020

A Legal and Practical Checklist for UK Employers whose staff wish to work from outside the UK Since the Covid-19 pandemic began to impact working life in the UK in March 2020, the workplace has changed beyond recognition. In the UK, 60% of employees are now working from home (“WFH”) on a semi-permanent basis. Without the usual constraints of office working which WFH has brought with it, employers are being asked by employees (often those…

Employer Perspectives

Job Support Scheme update : 22 October 2020

By Ann Robson

October 22, 2020

HM Treasury has just announced a change to the Job Support Scheme which comes into force from 1 November for the whole of the UK. Previously, employees had to be working 33% of their hours to qualify, with the employer then picking up 33% of the cost of the unworked hours, and the Government paying the remaining 33%. Now, employees can qualify for the scheme if they work only 20% of their normal hours. For…

Employer Perspectives

Protecting confidential information: FCA warning reminds of increased risks from home-working

By George Aldous

October 19, 2020

With a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly well underway and restrictions tightening across the country, it is without doubt that remote working will continue to be the norm for many employees for the foreseeable future. The potential issues this raises for employers in relation to data security and the protection of confidential information were brought into focus last week, with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Director of Market Oversight, Julia Hoggett, warning banks that…

Employer Perspectives

Annual Pensions Conference – Webinar Series: Autumn 2020

By Giles Bywater

October 7, 2020

Our UK Pensions group are delighted to share details of this year’s annual forum. Usually a half-day event, this year we are trying a different format and running the in-person conference as a virtual series of weekly webinars taking place through the autumn. If you and your colleagues are free, we’d be delighted if you’d join us as we explore current and upcoming pensions related matters that we anticipate will be at the forefront of…

Employer Perspectives

The Pensions Regulator’s COVID-19 guidance – where are we now?

By Beverly Cox

October 6, 2020

The Pensions Regulator issued a suite of COVID-19 guidance for trustees and employers at the end of March. As part of that guidance, the Regulator announced that it would be taking a more flexible approach to regulation and enforcement in certain areas for a limited period. Over the intervening months, this flexibility has largely been removed now that schemes have come through the initial disruption and adjusted to new ways of working. Many employers, however,…

Employer Perspectives

US Benefits & Compensation University – Webinar Series: October 2020

By Louise Fernandes-Owen

October 5, 2020

If you or your colleagues cover US benefits and/or executive compensation, please join Mayer Brown’s Benefits & Compensation University. By popular demand, we are expanding our annual US Executive Compensation University to include health, welfare and qualified plan issues. During this series of webinars, we will explore benefit and compensation issues in depth and hear from leading Mayer Brown lawyers about the changing regulatory landscape as they provide practical, business-focused guidance on dealing with these…

Employer Perspectives

News and Views on Employment and Pensions Issues

Blog Authors

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme update: UK Government guidance, 11 November 2020

Further extension of Furlough

Extension of the Furlough Scheme update

€35 million fine issued under GDPR for employee monitoring and IT security failings in Germany

Home and Away

Job Support Scheme update : 22 October 2020

Protecting confidential information: FCA warning reminds of increased risks from home-working

Annual Pensions Conference – Webinar Series: Autumn 2020

The Pensions Regulator’s COVID-19 guidance – where are we now?

US Benefits & Compensation University – Webinar Series: October 2020

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