Employers of seasonal workers warned to comply with legal pension duties 

The warning comes from The Pensions Regulator’s online campaign that is targeted at employers in sectors most likely to hire seasonal workers this winter, including those in agriculture and horticulture. 

TPR reminds employers that if they are hiring temporary workers, they should check on their legal automatic enrolment (AE) duties.   
  
Sarah Howitt Jones, interim joint director of Automatic Enrolment at The Pensions Regulator, said: “We want to ensure every eligible* worker is enrolled into a workplace pension scheme and gets the pension they are due.” 
  
“Even if your additional staff work for you for a few days or weeks, you must assess whether they are eligible to be enrolled into a pension scheme each time you pay them.”   
 
“And if they are, you must put them into a qualifying scheme and pay contributions.   

“As your temporary workers may have variable hours and pay, your assessment of who to put into a pension scheme may take more time and effort.   
  
“To support you, we have step-by-step guidance on our website to help you ensure you are meeting your duties correctly.”  

Postponement   

Employers whose staff will be working for them for less than three months can use postponement to delay assessing those employees. This pauses the employer’s duty to assess staff until the end of the three-month postponement period.  

Ms Howitt Jones added: “If you think you may be late in meeting your duties for your temporary staff, you should tell TPR immediately, so that we can provide support to help you comply. 

“We know the majority of employers in the agricultural and horticultural industry are doing the right thing for their staff, but for those that don’t, we may take enforcement action to protect savers.”  

“So don’t hide from your pension duties, check on your legal duties today.”   

Check on the steps you need to take to assess and enrol seasonal or temporary staff here. Further guidance is accessible here.

Any staff who are aged between 22 and state pension age and who earn over £192 a week, or £833 a month, must be put into a pension scheme which their employer must pay into. Find out more here. 

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