Two directors and five senior staff members of Derby-based recruitment agency Workchain admitted to impersonating their temporary workers to opt them out of their workplace pension program.

Workchain, along with its owners and director Phil Tong and Adam Hinkley and a further five staff members pleaded guilty at the Derby Magistrates’ Court of logging in to the organisation’s online pension system and using employees’ personal details and then terminating temporary employees’ workplace pension membership so they can save money on employer pension contributions.

The company provides talent supply chain services through 14 offices in the UK focusing on the logistics, industrial and office sectors. Workchain’s website informs clients that it is “dedicated to providing compliant workforce solutions to your business” and that their technology “ enables us to guarantee compliance in an ever-changing regulatory landscape”.

According to the Pensions Regulator, a UK regulator of work-based pension schemes, Workchain would have been able to avoid paying pension contributions if the offence had not been detected.

Darren Ryder, The Pensions Regulator’s Director of Automatic Enrolment, commented, “Workchain’s directors saw denying their temporary workers pensions as a quick and easy way to save the company money.”

The National Employment Savings Trust had reported concerns about Workchain which led to the launch of a joint investigation by the Pensions Regulator, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, Derbyshire Constabulary and Nottinghamshire Constabulary.

District judge Jonathan Taaffee committed the case to Derby Crown Court for a sentencing hearing on 28 June 2018.

The maximum sentence for a conviction of computer misuse is six months’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine if the sentence is passed in a magistrates’ court, or two years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine if the judgement is passed in the Crown Court.

The Pensions Regulator prosecuted Workchain, the two directors and five senior staff for an offence of unauthorised access to computer data, contrary to section 1(1) of the Computer Misuse Act 199

“Automatic enrolment is not an option, it’s the law and the law is clear - no one can opt a worker out of a pension scheme, even if the worker agrees. Those who try to avoid their pension responsibilities in this way face prosecution,” Ryder said.

Nathan Long, senior pension analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told employeebenefits.co.uk, “Employers are responsible for enrolling their staff into pensions, but staff have ultimate responsibility for their financial future. This particular case involved treating temporary employees differently to permanent staff, which given more modern, flexible working patterns makes it particularly important. Any employers who are not doing their bit should get their house in order quickly, as the regulator once again shows it is not to be crossed.”