By James Langton

(January 8 – 10:10 ET) – The current issue of Scotland on Sundayfeatures a look at the troubles facing Edinburgh-based Standard Life in Canada and the United Kingdom.

The paper looks at a lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court claiming a Standard Life branch office made repeated unexplained deductions from company pensions and kept the revenue. The claims remain unproven, but the story speculates that they could leave the Canadian operation facing compensation claims of as much as £45 million.

A Standard Life spokeswoman told the paper, “Standard Life has dismissed six sales staff in Canada for gross misconduct. No client will be disadvantaged, but we are suing for damages. It would be inappropriate to comment further during the legal process. However, we are fully confident of our grounds for the dismissals, and the courts will find in our favour.”

Gordon Hart, a Scottish businessman who is leading continued attempts to force Standard Life to demutualize, demanded assurances that there were no problems in Standard Life’s U.K. operations.

According to the story, former Standard Life workers say that unexplained deductions were made from Standard Life’s Par Bonus Policies, under which clients pay an extra premium designed to generate increased revenue. They claim the unexplained charges were regularly deducted from these extra earnings. These former employees claim the practice “significantly reduced the amount paid to company pensions, and was on occasion used to cover losses elsewhere in the Canadian branch”.

The claims come after Standard Life dismissed six sales staff for alleged gross misconduct and is suing them for damages.