benefits (pensions, medical and incentive schemes)

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EMPLOYERS CAN’T JUST TAKE AWAY EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BY LUSANDA RAPHULU AND EVA MUDELY
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
In these tough economic times, almost all employers are looking for ways to cut their costs. For many of them, their highest cost is their employees.

LIKE IT OR NOT, REGISTRAR’S APPROVAL A CONDITION OF FUTURE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS WITH PRINCIPAL OFFICERS BY DAVID GERAL
Monday, December 08, 2008
New legislation grants controversial powers to the registrar of pension funds to veto the appointment of principal officers.

DEALING WITH MEDICAL SCHEMES’ RESERVES IN CORPORATE DISPOSALS - DAVID GERAL
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Corporate disposals and unbundlings do not pose significant legal difficulties where the medical schemes providing the services to the companies involved are open, public schemes. When one of the schemes is a private scheme whose membership is defined as the employees within that particular group, legal difficulties can arise.

LIMITATION CLAUSES IN AUDITORS’ SERVICE AGREEMENTS WITH PENSION FUNDS – DAVID GERAL
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Consumers of services provided by auditors are accustomed to clauses in the standard service agreement limiting the auditors’ liability for certain services. Typically auditors’ standard service agreements provide that the maximum liability of the auditors in respect of services other than “statutory” audit services (described below) shall be limited to a multiple of the fees charged for those non-audit services.

TIMING IS MONEY – DAVID GERAL
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
When employees are transferred between retirement funds following the sale of business between their former employer and their new employer, those employees could end up losing out on investment returns, sometimes due to their own ill-informed choice, and the seller’s fund could be exposed unnecessarily to claims from transferring employees who are no longer its members. Companies and fund trustees should take care to avoid those consequences to the extent that they can.

TRUST OR NOT TO TRUST: WHAT IS RELEVANT TO A BOARD OF TRUSTEES – MICHELLE DAVID
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The ability of the board of trustees of a pension fund to effect payment to a trust on behalf of a minor dependant has once again come to the fore, in the recent case of AK Kowa v Corporate Selection Retirement Fund & Liberty Life the Pension Fund Adjudicator has once again moved the goalposts for trustees.

LIMITATION CLAUSES IN PENSION FUND AUDITORS’ SERVICE AGREEMENTS
Friday, March 30, 2007
Consumers of services provided by auditors are accustomed to clauses in the standard service agreement limiting the auditors’ liability for certain services. Typically auditors’ standard service agreements provide that the maximum liability of the auditors in respect of services other than “statutory” audit services (described below) shall be limited to a multiple of the fees charged for those non-audit services.

THE RETIREMENT FUND REFORM PAPER AND RETIREMENT FUND GOVERNANCE
Monday, March 05, 2007
The theme of retirement fund governance is currently of interest amongst retirement funding industry stakeholders. It is therefore appropriate, within the context of the retirement funding reform process, to outline proposals to strengthen fund governance in order to prevent failures like those that have dominated the press in the past two years.

EMPLOYERS TAKE NOTE: NEW EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT REGULATIONS LIMIT “DESIGNATED PERSONS” TO SOUTH AFRICANS
Monday, October 02, 2006
The new Employment Equity Act, which became effective on 26 May 2006, demands the close attention of all employers.

BEWARE OF UNILATERALLY CHANGING AN AGREED RETIREMENT AGE.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Where the employment relationship is brought to an end due to a retirement age dispute, the usual route followed by the employee is to allege an automatically unfair dismissal under the Labour Relations Act (“the LRA”) on the basis that the employer unfairly discriminated against the employee on the ground of age.

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