Employee Benefits

UK - Employers are turning to flexible benefit plans to manage their spiralling pension costs and help retain final salary schemes, Mercer Human Resource Consulting claims.

UK - Two-thirds of all employees do not understand the pension schemes being offered by their employers, research from Black Mountain reveals.

UK - Thomson's Group chief executive Douglas Gardner has been appointed a member of the FSA's financial services practitioner panel.

UK - Firms' pension costs could be slashed by the government's moves to end age discrimination in the workplace, consultants claim.

GLOBAL - Investment professionals are increasingly leaving the financial sector for pastures new as firms restructure and salary levels drop.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting has unveiled a new method for evaluating executive pay which, it says, promotes greater transparency.

NETHERLANDS - Pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant Akzo Nobel has fervently denied allegations from a Dutch shareholder activist group that it masked a e260m pension fund deficit in its 2002 financial accounts.

UK - Occupational scheme members do not understand many aspects of their pensions, a survey by business adviser PKF reveals.

UK - Employers are tailoring schemes to worker groups in a bid to try and boost motivation among key staff, latest research from Industrial Relations Services shows.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting has been appointed by Apache Corporation to set up a new final salary scheme and provide pensions and benefits advice.