Farmers hiring seasonal workers reminded of pension duties

Farmers who employ temporary seasonal staff are being reminded they may risk a fine if they don’t comply with their legal pension duties.

The warning comes from the Pensions Regulator (TPR) in an online campaign aimed at employers most likely to hire seasonal temporary workers.

Social media posts featuring fruit pickers and farm labourers remind farmers that if they are hiring temporary staff, they should ensure they check on their legal automatic enrolment (AE) duties.

The aim of the campaign is to ensure that every worker who is eligible under AE rules is enrolled into a workplace pension scheme and gets the pension they are due.

Sarah Howitt Jones, of the TPR, said: “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 temporary workers may have variable hours and pay, an assessment of who to put into a pension scheme may take more time and effort.

To support farmers, the TPR have step by step guidance to help ensure duties are being met correctly.

If a farmer has staff who will be working for less than three months, postponement can be used to delay assessing those employees.

This pauses the employer duty to assess staff until the end of the three-month postponement period.

Ms Howitt Jones said: “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 farming industry are doing the right thing for their staff, but for those that don’t, we may take enforcement action to protect savers.”