Any HR/Legal people about? Coronavirus & unpaid leave question

[HRhelp]

So DW had a conference call yesterday with her manager.

She was basically asked ‘what can you survive on’ if the business had to temporarily shut because of coronavirus.

She was also told that she may be asked to take unpaid leave.

Does anyone know if this is legally allowed? I’m trying not to stress however we have our second child on the way and I’m already on pregnancy related sick pay in my job.

Thanks in advance

I don't have any advice but this kind of subject is going to crop up for lots of people. I work agency do had resigned myself to no pay if there is a shutdown.

I have heard of someone ( service engineer who goes into peoples homes) who has a COLD and had been sent home by his boss, no sick pay apart from SSP, how can companies get away with this ?

If the business has to temporarily shut they will have no income coming in so may struggle to pay staff.

Our contracts allow for a Lay Off (or short time). If there is no work available (or the business has to shut) we can be laid off and paid Statutory Lay Off Pay of £29 per day. This only lasts for 5 days though. After trhat its zero pay or you have the right to ask to be made redundant.

I believe that Lay Off has to be provided for in your contract though.

As the alternative to unpaid leave might be to make staff redundant or to go bankrupt if they can;t sustain paying their staff then I would say it is reasonable for the company to ask.

Yes course it's legally allowed no employer has to pay you if your not in work . I suspect if business can't open then they are not making any money to pay staff .
It's a difficult time for all it'd be nice if we could be paid . I'm worried about school closures as I'll need to take time off so I'll have to use annual leave / unpaid . It's not good .

@idontlike789 but the OPs wife is fit and able to work.

It depends on her contract but yes she should be paid if she’s fit for work. The danger here is it sounds like she’s employed by a small business who may not be able to cover salaries if no income is generated.

We have a Lay Off clause in our staff contracts but have done absolutely everything we can over the past year not to use them and to find staff with no work something else to do.

We are a small business (fewer than 20 members of staff including owner /director) and suffered dreadfully with the uncertainty surrounding Brexit affecting our orders and had our worst level of sales ever last year. Just as we were getting back to relative normality we are now facing another severe downturn in work due to Coronoavirus. What are we supposed to do if we don't have orders and therefore work for all our staff? We can't afford to pay them for nothing. Its almost worse because we have several different areas within the factory and one area remains busy! They will feel mightily hard done to if they have to work for their pay when others get paid for doing nothing,

PegasusReturns yep you’re right it’s a small business and unfortunately they aren’t that great to the staff so wanted to check if they were trying to pull a fast one.

I understand if there’s no money in the business they can’t pay staff but I don’t know the ins and out of their finances obviously.

She’s fit and able to work. Working from home would also be a possibility but it depends on other businesses being available to speak to

Has she looked at her contract? Our staff contracts have a section regarding lay offs, reduced hours etc.

If the business is closing but your DW is ready, willing and able to work then she legally has to be paid for her contracted hours.

However... if there is a lay off clause then it’s true that they probably don’t need to pay her as a PP suggested.

This is all quite worrying, one of my friends works for a large well know company, and they are being encouraged to use up their annual leave or take unpaid leave!

She has 3 kids, a mortgage and a not too small mountain of debt

She needs to look at her contract OP, anything she is contractually entitled to will be stated within it and be based on her contracted hours of work. Otherwise I would consult C.A.B for information on statutory sick pay etc, and the govt information relating to imposed isolation and the financial support measures in place. Those are different than usual as it is mitigating circumstances so standard HR rhetoric may not apply here.

Sounds like her employer anticipates financial difficulty and is trying to work out how to proceed, as many are and will be in the coming months. There will be no guarantee of pay if it goes into arrears so I would look into your family finances to work out how you would cope. This could have happened at any time though, so I think blaming coronavirus is a bit moot tbh. Businesses go bust often and it's personal responsibility to be prepared, rainy day funds, income insurance etc., not living beyond your means.

If I were her I would appraise myself of the info and then work with the employer to suggest a work from home schedule that could be made to work, and make clear that she is not willing to take unpaid leave, if she is not so that they know where they stand. It is not illegal to ASK staff if they would be prepared to take unpaid leave, or ask them to work reduced hours if they are able or currently working more hours than contracted. It is also not illegal to make a person redundant or hold consultation and impose smaller working hour contracts of the business is in difficulty.

You just have to bear in mind that if everyone says no then they may not stay afloat. Clearly they are very sensibly trying to manage the situation by weighing up options in circumstances where money doesn't grow on trees. Your lack of savings and other incomes etc aren't their problem any more than their ailing business is yours, unfortunately. For this reason you and your DW need to asses the risks and your finances and work out what you are entitled to claim if income is reduced.

We are currently in this situation.
All staff have been asked to do 2 weeks unpaid.

Global manufacturing company who will infact be making a fortune through corona-virus.

So nope I won't be agreeing to it.
If they put pressure on me then I'll request to see where it is stated in my contract.