The Pensions Regulator is challenging a crucial plan to pay off the £10.3bn deficit in the Royal Mail pension scheme over 38 years. The pension scheme's trustees have struck the deal with the company. Royal Mail says it will continue to make "substantial" extra payments to clear the deficit. But the regulator says it has "substantial concerns about both the deficit figure and other aspects of the agreement". Details of the deal between the company and the trustees are being kept private for the time being. The plan involves repaying the deficit over 38 years, more than twice as long as the current deficit repayment plan. Deficit payments would be tiered, starting a bit above their current level but rising sharply in four or five years' time. "The regulator is passionately opposed to the idea," said a source close to the scheme. View Pensions Jobs at Simply HR Jobs.

France's retirement age will be raised from 60 to 62 over the next eight years as part of sweeping pension reforms, the government announced today. French labour minister Eric Woerth said that working longer was ‘inevitable’ and necessary to drag the country’s public finances out of the red. Even with the change, the French workers will still retire far sooner than most others in the the developed world.
» Read more: French workers’ fury as retirement age is raised… to 62

Nick Clegg has criticised "unreformed gold plated" public sector pensions, as new figures show spending on them will more than double by 2014/15. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) says the taxpayer cost is set to rise from £4bn to £9bn. Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg said that was "unfair" and unaffordable. But Dave Prentis, leader of the public sector union Unison, said the government was trying to create an "aura" of austerity before making cuts. The coalition has promised a review of public sector pensions. According to the OBR report, the rise in spending on provision until 2014/15 represents an average increase of 20% a year in real terms. It is the first time the cost has been projected more than one year into the future and the OBR cites "demographic" reasons - the fact that more public sector workers are due to retire in the next four years and that they are more likely to live longer.
» Read more: Public sector pension costs ‘to double in five years’

One in four people in the UK often works all day without taking a break, a survey suggests. More than half of the 3,000 people polled by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists said they went to work when feeling unwell or stressed. Staff shortages were cited as a cause of stress and why breaks were skipped. While work can contribute to people's mental and physical well-being, overworking can lead to health problems, the CSP warned.
» Read more: One in four ‘works all day without break’ – survey

Marks and Spencer has announced plans to inject £800m into its final salary pension scheme in an attempt to fill its growing funding gap. The idea is that M&S will be making cash contributions to the scheme totalling about £376m over the next eight years, as well as other investments.
» Read more: M&S plans pension fund bail-out

There has been early signs from the new coalition government which suggests this summer's budget will contain the most dramatic tax changes seen in decades. Millions of low-paid people will not have to pay any income tax by the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition but the high earners in the Country may lose pension taxbreaks and Tory plans to ease inheritance tax will be put on hold for this Parliament.
» Read more: New Tax system under Coalition Government

The UK's private sector final-salary pension schemes fell back into deficit by the end of April after being in surplus a month earlier. The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) said the 7,400 pension schemes had a total deficit of £2.2bn. This came after the schemes had moved into a surplus of £0.3bn in March - the first month in positive territory since June 2008.
» Read more: Pension schemes back into deficit

  Coca-Cola has been criticised for an advertising campaign that apparently encourages staff to take sickness absence.

The stragglers among the stranded volcano victims may be arriving home but we are not out of the ash cloud yet. Indeed — from a legal perspective — the crisis has barely started. As people dust themselves down and turn to the paperwork, we start to get a glimmer of what lies ahead.

» Read more: After the Icelandic volcano: what the lawyers expect next

With no end in sight to the volcanic ash problem which has paralysed travel to and from the UK and most of Europe, hundreds of thousands of workers remain stranded around the world.

It could take many more days - perhaps weeks - for some of them to get home. The situation is creating a staff-shortage crisis for some employers.

And many of those workers stuck abroad could face having their pay docked if they reach the limit of their annual holiday allowance, according to legal experts.

» Read more: Should workers stranded by volcano lose pay?