The £45m Horse Totalisator Board pension fund is considering setting up a separate group personal pension scheme to help it meet the legal requirements of the Part-Time Work Directive.
The directive, which came into force earlier this year, requires employers to treat part-time staff the same as full-time employees when it comes to employee benefits such as pensions.
It has been predicted that this could lead to problems for employers where certain categories of employee are not allowed membership of the pension fund.
George Waple, pensions manager at the Tote, said, “This means we have got to look at pension provision pre-stakeholder. Part-timers are not currently allowed in the scheme.”
He said that the Tote was unlikely to extend the eligibility of the fund because a final salary scheme might not be suitable for part-time staff.
Instead it is looking at the possibility of setting up a group personal pension plan. He added that in terms of stakeholder the scheme was likely to extend its membership rather than create another fund.
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