Another major shift in our lives.
Further to the Government’s announcement last night many businesses will now be moving to place some or all of their employees on Furlough; the business does not have to totally cease working for you to use Furlough Leave. We do not yet have specific guidance relating to Zero Hours Workers/Employees but we expect that they will be included in the Furlough pay arrangements (or a similar scheme) however we are unable to tell you anything as yet, we’ll update you as soon as we know anything.
As per our earlier briefing notes, employees need to agree to be put on Furlough and receive the 80%, although as the option is redundancy or lay-off they are unlikely not to do so.
Employees on Furlough CANNOT undertaken any work either for the you, on their own account or for another employer (so if they go stacking shelves at a supermarket (and get paid) they will not be on Furlough from you, they would have to take unpaid leave from you). I suggest you send out a copy of the agreement which you have already signed and the employee can return a scanned or photo of the signed agreement. If the employee is unable to do this, then they return the agreement to you in an email using the following wording in the email to confirm acceptance:
In the absence of a signed agreement, please accept this email as confirmation of my acceptance of the temporary variation to my contract of employment set out in the attached Furlough Leave Agreement. NAME of EMPLOYEE
You will pay the employees and then (when it’s set up) register who you have put on Furlough through an HMRC portal and they will repay the 80% to you. We are not clear on what the 80% (up to a max of £2,500 per employee) will be based but think probably on February earnings and as the guidance so far states “wages costs” we don’t know if that will include Employers’ NI and pension contributions.
The Government announcement of last night is that employees should only go to work if that work cannot be done from home. So if it is possible (whether you like it or not) for employees to do their work at home you must allow them to do so and they would continue to be paid at full pay – unless you have agreed a reduction of working hours and pay with them. One option is to issue notice for them to take holiday to top the shortfall in work e.g. 1 day per week for the next 4 weeks. Notice must be double the length of leave to be taken e.g. for 1 day’s holiday, give minimum of 2 days’ notice, you must specify the dates to be taken.
If it is not possible for the work to be done from home and you continue to operate then employees can come to work and (with the exception of the medical exemptions) you can insist on them doing so – although take account of personal situations and review on a case-by-case basis if employees refuse to do so to ensure that you are acting reasonably – we can advise on that if you need to discuss with us.
You may be working at reduced capacity and might therefore Furlough some but not all of your employees. Think carefully about, and have a firm rationale for, your reasons for Furloughing some employees and not others – be careful about claims of discriminatory selection.
The employee remains employed during Furlough Leave and all contractual rights and obligations both from the Company and from the employee continue.
Remember, you are the boss! It is the Company’s decision about all of the above (based on the Government edicts) and not the employees’ decision; seek our advice in relation to difficult employees.
