Corporate Insolvency: Employment and Pension Rights

David Pollard is a solicitor and a consultant with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. A former Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers (APL), he was for 25 years a partner in Freshfields specialising in pensions, employment and insolvency law. He advised companies on issues ranging from the setting up and funding of pension schemes to the impact of corporate insolvencies and transactions. He also acted for trustees, advising them generally, including on restructurings, funding, company proposals, disputes, and queries from pension scheme members. He has twice (1998 and 2015) been awarded the Wallace Medal by the APL for excellence in communicating pension issues.

- Introduction
- Employment law
- Directors and controlling shareholders as employees
- Occupational pension schemes
- Redundancy and Tupe: Consultation with employees
- Consultation – penalties and special circumstances (Tupe and TULRCA)
- Works Councils
- Pensions consultation – PA 2004
- Insolvency proceedings
- Insolvency: moratorium on legal proceedings and process
- Start of insolvency proceedings: effect on employees
- Effect of termination of employment
- Protective awards and redundancy consultation in insolvency
- Personal liability of Insolvency Practitioners
- IP personal liability: direct criminal or civil penalty liability
- IP personal liability: discrimination legislation
- Preferential debts
- Preferential debts: subrogation of third parties and NI Fund
- Pensions as a preferential debt
- National Minimum Wage
- Pensions – auto-enrolment
- EC Employment Insolvency Directive
- National Insurance Fund
- NI Fund: Subrogation of the Secretary of State
- NI Fund: Procedure on claims from the Secretary of State
- Statutory maternity, sick and adoption pay
- Summary table: status of employee claims (preferential/NI Fund)
- Set-off
- Carrying on business: impact on employee and pension claims
- Carrying on business – Nortel and overview of issues - provable debts/ insolvency expense/ adopted contract/ black hole?
- Carrying on business – provable debts
- Carrying on business – insolvency expenses
- Summary table: employee claims in administration – expenses or adopted
- Insolvency expenses: receivers?
- Carrying on business – adopted employment contracts
- PAYE and national insurance
- Transfer of Undertakings: Introduction and impact of Europe
- Tupe 2006 – terminal insolvencies
- Tupe 2006 – non-terminal insolvencies
- Tupe 1981 – hive downs
- Tupe 2006 – information and consultation with employees
- Tupe 2006 – definition of transfer
- Tupe 2006 – provision of information to transferee
- Tupe: Impact on dismissals instigated by IP
- Tupe: Pension liabilities
- “Pre pack” administrations
- Pensions and other trusts
- Insolvency event – PPF and s75
- PPF: Pension Protection Fund: overview
- PPF: notice obligations on IPs
- PPF: Assessment periods
- TPR/PPF: notification obligations and power to gather information
- Independent trustee obligations
- Excluded schemes: Scope of the main pensions legislation
- Who is an employer under the pensions legislation?
- Contributions to pension schemes
- Section 75: Debt on employer
- Section 75: Amount of the debt
- Section 75 Debt: flowchart
- Section 75: Allocation arrangements and withdrawal arrangements under the Employer Debt Regulations
- Section 75 compromises
- Multi-employer schemes: PPF and s75
- TPR Moral hazard powers
- Moral hazard and restructuring
- TPR’s practice on moral hazard powers
- Money purchase schemes
- Winding up the pension scheme
- Winding-up the scheme: surpluses
- Overseas employees and insolvencies
- Who is connected or associated?