Most Employers and their Employees will have been made aware of the Government’s new initiative,  called ‘furlough leave’

This has been brought in to avoid making employees redundant at this difficult time.  The idea is that once employees have agreed to go on furlough leave, the Employer pays them 80% of their gross wage to stay at home and do no work, except those jobs around the house and garden that always get put off.  Lets call it ‘clean your skirting boards’  leave.     The Employer then claims this 80% back through a portal that HMRC are still building – it should be operative by the end of April.   This money can then be put aside to pay May’s wages and so on.   The Govt have said this will carry on for 3 months.   If this crisis goes on longer, it is my bet that the Govt will extend this.  But please do not hold me to that!!

Anybody taken on for work after 1 March is not included and I believe that the Govt have made it this way to prevent abuse of the initiative.

Staff can also be rotated through this initial 3 months which means if you need Employee A to work in April but may need Employee B in May, they can be swopped – A can be furloughed in May and B can work.

Employers do not have to make up the extra 20% that the Govt will not pay.  It is at the Employer’s discretion…Remember though  that an Employee is being paid 80% of their gross wage – not net wage. 

You must remember that on furlough leave you are not allowed to work at all and cant be forced to by the Employer and you certainly cant take on another job whilst you are furloughed.. 

If an Employee falls ill,  their Employer must put them on sick pay and not furlough leave

There is more we need to know about this initiative and this should become clearer over the next few weeks as the HMRC gets built to deal with Employer claims.

Remember that you have to discuss furlough leave with your employees – you cant make them go on it.   However it is an alternative to being laid off and ultimately jobless,  if your Employer cant afford to pay redundancy monies.

Once this is over and we can breathe again, literally and you still want to let the Employee go then we can talk redundancy procedure and dealing with that through a Settlement Agreement.

Government website link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme