A revised staging timetable for pensions auto-enrolment has been published by the DWP. This follows the announcement in November 2011 that smaller employers were to get more time to prepare. Under the revised timetable, there will be no change to the staging dates of employers with 250 or more employees. All existing companies, regardless of size will have to have introduced auto-enrolment by April 2017, with any new companies by February 2018. See LawTracker and the Checklist – Automatic Enrolment and NEST for more details.

UK middle managers are feeling the squeeze as a result of the economic downturn, according to the CIPD’s Winter 2011-12 Employee Outlook survey of 2,000 employees.

The government is to press ahead with reforms to executive pay. Announcing the new package of reforms Vince Cable said: ‘We cannot accept directors’ pay rising five times greater than average workers’ pay as happened last year ... there is evidence of a clear market failure’.

An employee’s resignation ‘with immediate effect’ meant what it said. Unless there was something to suggest that a ‘cooling off’ period was required and that the employee never actually intended to resign, nothing either party subsequently does can alter what in law was her effective date of termination.

There has been little movement in average pay deals for the three months ending December 2011 according to four pay research organisations with deals stuck in the mid-2%-3% range. But private sector deals in early 2012 are on the up.

The planned increase in parental leave to 18 weeks will not be implemented by March 2012. BIS has confirmed that it plans to take advantage of the year’s grace allowed for in the Parental Leave Directive for those member states experiencing ‘particular difficulties’ (in this case, the on-going Modern Workplaces policy development). The increase in the existing right to unpaid parental leave from 13 weeks to 18 weeks per parent per child will now be brought into force in March 2013. Parental leave rights will be incorporated into the proposed new system of flexible parental leave expected to be operational by 2015. See LawTracker for further details.

It's been confirmed that the increase in the unfair dismissal qualifying period from 1 year to 2 years will only affect those who start work on or after 6 April 2012. BIS are yet to make a formal announcement on its website to this effect. For recruitment purposes, employers need to be aware that for new joiners starting at any time up to and including 5 April 2012, the 1-year qualifying period will still apply. You can vote in our poll if you think this will affect the timing of your 2012 recruitment plans. See also ‘1 year to 2 + fees: will it work?’ and ‘Employment law reforms – a price worth paying?’.

A fairly standard indemnity in a compromise agreement did not oblige an employer to pay an ex-employee’s legal expenses associated with a criminal investigation into action allegedly taken by him when he was an employee.

UK Consumer Prices Index inflation fell in the year to December 2011 to 4.2%. The Retail Prices Index (typically used in wage negotiations) stood at 4.8%. The detailed figures are as follows:

• The headline rate of inflation in December 2011 was 4.8% (down from the previous month’s 5.2%)
• The RPI for December was 239.4
• The underlying rate of inflation in December 2011 was 5.0% (down from the previous month’s 5.3%)
• The Consumer Prices Index for December 2011 is 121.7, giving a percentage increase over the last 12 months of 4.2% (down from the previous month’s 4.8%)

See also Rates and Tables; the ONS Statistical Bulletin and the IDS Eye comment.

An employer’s refusal to allow an employee, who would not opt out of a 48-hour week, to work overtime was not unreasonable. Its actions were necessary to comply with its duties under the Working Time Regulations (WTR). The employee had not been penalised nor had he suffered a detriment by refusing to sign the opt out.

Only a third of UK workers are expecting a pay increase in 2012 and they reckon that it’ll be around the 2% mark according to research from uSwitch.com. This chimes with the most recent data on average pay deals which shows them clustered around the 2%-3% mark. Two-thirds of workers have suffered recent pay freezes and 15% haven’t had a pay rise for three years.