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Month: June 2017

CIPD urges SMEs to plan ahead for auto-enrolment

Posted on by Mike

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has urged SMEs to plan ahead for auto-enrolment to pension schemes to avoid unnecessary costs and also guarantee they get access to the best advice and pension schemes.

A recent CIPD report, Pensions auto-enrolment: the lessons for SMEs, warns that any company staging in 2014 needs to start preparations now to overcome the challenges associated with limited resources.

CIPD performance and reward adviser Charles Cotton explained of SMEs: “They are unlikely to have access to the same levels of expertise or support networks as their larger counterparts, and many fear it could be a costly exercise for their business.”

The study undertakenfound many SMEs are afraid that it will be difficult to absorb both the administrative costs of adopting auto-enrolment and the cost of their employer contributions.

More than a quarter anticipate they will need to reduce salary increases, with 22% expecting to need to implement a pay freeze in order to cope with the costs.

For information on employment law and your obligations please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson West on 0116 212 1000.

Setting up and operating a website

Posted on by Mike

The key question to ask when setting up a website or even if you already have one up and running is this:- is it mine? Around this question are a million and one other questions, most of which can be answered by having in place two very useful contracts: a website design and development agreement and a website hosting agreement.

Website design and development agreement

Unless you are very IT confident, you probably employed someone to design and build your website for you. This type of agreement is a contract between you and your designer which primarily deals with the building of the website. However, crucially, these agreements will also deal with ownership of the content of your website once it is built. You will want to ensure that you own all the rights in the design of your website pages and the software which makes them run so that you can legally sell the website or transfer it to another designer if necessary.

Website Hosting Agreement

An up and running website has to be ‘hosted’ on a server connected to the internet and not everyone can have their own dedicated servers to do this. If you do rely on another company then you will need a website hosting agreement so that you can hold your host responsible for ensuring that your customers have constant and uninterrupted access to your website at all times. After all, if your website crashes, you are probably losing business. 

Top Tip:- If you do not own the rights in your website then consider asking for them to be transferred to you or, at the very least, consider a website content licence which, whilst it does not give you 100% ownership, can give you all the rights of an owner. 

For more information please contact the Commercial team at Lawson West on 0116 212 1000.

New Consumer Protection Rules

Posted on by Mike

Businesses that sell goods and services to consumers over the internet should face criminal penalties if they fail to display details on cancellation rights, according to the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) and Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers (ACTSO).

In response to a Government consultation on new consumer protection rules, TSI and ACTSO said that it should be a criminal offence for traders that form ‘distance contracts’ with consumers to fail to present those individuals with information on their cancellation rights. A spokesperson said: “We feel that the offence of failing to give information to consumers about the cancellation of ‘off-premises contracts’ should be extended to include ‘distance contracts’ ”.

The two types of contract are different: where distance contracts concern agreements made between two or more parties based in separate locations, such as over the telephone or internet, off-premises contracts are sales transactions entered into at locations which are not the businesses’ premises, including door-to-door.

UK laws on selling over the internet are mainly set out in the Distance Selling Regulations which give shoppers specific legal protections and different cancellation rights from people who buy in-store. 

One requirement is that businesses generally must supply goods within 30 days or pay a refund. The regulations also state that in most circumstances online purchasers have the right to cancel an order they made within seven days of the goods being delivered and receive a full refunds. Online customers are also entitled to a full refund for goods or services not provided by the date agreed with a business.

For more information on selling over the internet, please contact our Commercial team on 0116 212 1000.

Survey reveals employee concerns over wellbeing at work

Posted on by Mike

A survey commissioned by employee benefits company Unum has discovered that as many as a third of employees would consider leaving their employer over wellbeing concerns.

The study used information from over 700 UK employees, and was carried out by ICM. On top of the 30% who would change jobs, a further 26% said concerns about their wellbeing at work could affect their thinking on long-term employment, with 21% saying poor wellbeing was a reason for them feeling less motivated and productive.

Older workers valued provisions for their welfare more than younger ones, with 74% of the 45- to 54-year-old age bracket seeing flexibility and support through ill health as a priority when choosing an employer. This compared to 66% among the 18- to 34-year-olds taking part.

SMEs performed significantly better than large corporates in the survey, with only 26% of employees reporting working conditions that were ‘adequate or poor’, compared to 41% of those employed by larger companies.

The research also found 42% of women reported that their employers did not provide good workplace conditions, compared to 30% of men.

Unum HR director Linda Smith explained that the key to employee wellbeing for businesses is to “acknowledge that different groups have different expectations and needs of an employer.”

For information on your obligations as an employer, please contact Vaishali Thakerar at Lawson West Commercial, solicitors specialising in employment law, on 0116 212 1000.

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