NEWS IN BRIEF

Auto enrolment

The Department for Work and Pensions has published its annual automatic enrolment evaluation report.  Up to the end of September 2014 more than 4.7 million workers had automatically enrolled across nearly 34,000 employers.  The level of opt out has been broadly consistent since automatic enrolment began in 2012 at around 10%.  Apparently age is the determining factor on deciding to opt out, with older employees more likely to opt out than younger ones.  Auto enrolment is now rolling out across employers with smaller workforces and it may be that the opt out rate increases.

Redundancy and maternity leave

There is often much confusion about the conflicting obligations in a redundancy situation where one or more of the work force are on maternity leave.  Recent guidance from the Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the duty to offer a woman on maternity leave a suitable alternative vacancy arises when the employer becomes aware that her role is redundant or potentially redundant.  Employers should therefore consider noting the exact point in time when the redundancy situation arises and then keeping an eye on suitable vacancies from that point onwards.

Bring your own device risks

Many businesses now allow employees to use personally owned devices such as tablets and smart phones in the workplace and for work purposes. 
At the end of last year the Government issued a collection of guidance notes on risk managing this.  The guidance sets out best practice for ensuring security and protecting the employers’ sensitive data.