Aibu to be angry at colleagues who don't want to work

[lonelylou09]

I work in my local village shop. We have 6 members of staff including my boss. We are still open and pretty busy at the moment as we are taking orders for and doing deliverys for local people who don't want to go out.
One member of staff has decided that as the government is going to pay her 80% of her wages to stay home she isn't coming in. Another has decided he can't cope with working at the moment and isn't coming in either. Both of these have used all their holiday allowance.
Aibu to be very annoyed to hear that my boss is going to pay them both when there is no reason for them not to be in work?
I thought the government help was for people who had on effect lost their jobs as they didn't have work? Neither are self isolating, neither are ill. They are both generally lazy in work which means me and another colleague are always working harder to pick up the slack.
I myself so not want to be working at the moment but I don't feel I have a choice as we only have my wages coming in at the moment in a household of 3 adults. The restaurant my son work zero hours in has closed and the delivery company my partner worked for is closed although he's been told he will get paid his 80% as it's beyond his control that he can't go to work.
I'm so annoyed at my colleagues for thinking they can use this as an excuse to not work and get paid for it. Also annoyed at my boss for letting them. Aibu?

My partner has had to close his shop and has furloughed his staff.
His understanding is that he will be paying them full wages at the moment and then in April will be able to claim 80% back from the government. He will keep paying the 20% top up from the business until the money runs out. He is not taking any money himself (so we shall rely on my wages and and savings) so that the money in the business can last longer as the staff have considerably less money that we do to start with.
Hopefully he will be able to open in the not too distant future and his staff will reward him with returning to work. If the money runs out, then they will be on the 80% until whenever.
I am proud of him for doing right by his staff.

@lonelylou09 are you given payslips? If not they won't be able to be furloughed is the point...

@Mummyoflittledragon
Out holiday system works on hours as we all work different hours each week. The other 2 staff have already taken there's as time off paid for her and cash advances with no time off for him as he kept saying he was struggling for cash. Because he is the only person who covers the time of shifts I work.. The evening shifts.. It's been difficult for me to get time off. The few occasions I've had time off, a day or so here and there.. He's been unwilling to cover so I've ended up having to work some of his shifts Inexchange to be able to have my time off. So say he does 3 night shifts one week and I do the other 4.. I've had to do 7 in a row to have my 7 off.. Whereas he's taken his holiday allowance as cash.
The couple of times I've managed to sort with my boss to have time off I've ended up having to go in as he doesn't want to work the extra.. As in last week was my first full week off in a year.. I had one day off and then got called in to mine and his shifts as he's decided its too much and isn't coming back to work now.

@QuitMoaning well done to your husband for doing that. In that case he has absolutely done the best by his staff as it's unavoidable that they are out of work and hopefully when this is over he can reopen and know that he has his full team of staff ready and willing to go.
In my case.. We are not closed and are busier than ever trying to cope with customers and getting orders done and out for customers in our community which we don't normally do. So we need our staff members more than ever.. That's why it's annoying to think they are getting paid to stay home when there is no need for them to do so.

Dh has been furloughed. His company is not closed. Due to the nature of his work there is no longer as much demand so they put the whole department on furlough- in my opinion they are making the most of this as the company could have kept him on and taken a hit or put him elsewhere, it’s there so obviously they have made a business, money saving decision and taken it.

I think furlough should only really be used for closed businesses though, as many will use the opportunity as a short term cost saving measure to the detriment of the economy long term.

@shampoofarrow yes we are given payslips

Lonelylou are you actually on a proper payroll system, receiving payslips with tax/ni deductions etc? Your boss sounds like a total cowboy.

Xposted.

erm you all get paid in cash form the till?

how is that stil legal-he wont be applying for furlough you need to be doing it through the books

Although we've closed now I think requiring full closure for furlough might have been more detrimental economically. There are lots of businesses who have a significantly reduced amount of work, but not zero. It's better that they are able to keep doing what they can with some staff furloughed and some working, than closing entirely

@iris243 yes my partner has had the same. He works for a luxury item company in their delivery department so the company has closed temporarily and put all its staff on furlough. So we were given to understand they would apply for his wages to be paid and it would be backdated.
My son had a zero hours contract at a local restaurant so there's only my shop wages coming in to the home at the moment. I also normally do cleaning around my shop work as it's not enough hours so I've taken a huge hit financially and am very stressed.
Trying my best to keep everything going and feeling like what's the point when some people are treating this like a paid holiday and getting away with it

You keep on saying you have to go in. No you don’t. The shop can simply shut if the business owner can’t be arsed to go in or to manage his staff. You are being a pushover. Put some boundaries in place, please. It really isn’t clear if you’ve even taken your entire holiday entitlement tbh.

Are you going to report him to hmrc?

how is that stil legal-he wont be applying for furlough you need to be doing it through the books

Of course it is legal to pay in cash. It reduces banking fees in a business that takes cash. Most businesses pay for transactions through your bank, so paying in the cash would be one and paying each employee out would be another x number of employees

That isn't the same as not putting it through the books. The OP gets a payslip.

@StatisticallyChallenged yes we get payslips and p60s ect. I've never really thought about how we get paid although it is a pain to get cash as I then have to put it all in the bank anyway and it's more difficult to keep track off.
When I first started I was told we got 2 weeks paid holiday a year so I said you can't do that. I had to print off from gov website what the legal entitlements are and show my boss and she said she wasn't aware of that and would have to speak to her accountant about it.
We don't get breaks either as often we work alone at weekends for example and that would mean shutting the shop. So at weekend I do 9.5 hour shift.. No break

Goodness OP I know this probably isn't really the time when you have other things on your plate but I don't believe your boss could have been running a business while being genuinely unaware that 2 weeks paid holiday weren't enough, or not letting you have breaks??? I know this does happen in some places but it's just a sign of a bad boss trying to see how much they can get away with before people start walking out or reporting them imo. It sounds like she's trying to squeeze every last drop out of the staff and being very shady

Your shop is being run illegally, Lonely.

And if you've got a holiday booked, it's up to your boss to cover your shift, not for you to have to arrange it with a co worker and then go in if they 'won't' cover you.

It's his shop, it's his problem. You don't have to go in when you're on holiday. What would they do if you'd gone abroad on your week off? Make you fly back?

It does sound like your boss has a very flexible relationship with employment law

@Mummyoflittledragon
The member of staff I share the evening shifts with started just over a year ago. Before then myself and the other evening shift person would arrange between ourselves when we would like time off and cover for each other. He was more than happy to work as much as he could and often covered day shifts too. This was easier for us both than asking our boss for time off and us being more or less required to have to cover as it would only be us doing the later shifts.
Enter new staff member as other one left to set up his own business and this one doesn't want to work more than his own shifts so I've got about 75% of my holiday hours this year left.
My boss is working extra hard to get orders and deliverys to our community but management has never been her strong point. She herself hasn't had a day off since this started but she is making it harder on herself and us staff with how she is doing things. I've suggested cutting hours down which would then give them time when the shop is closed to get the delivery orders sorted but no one is listening.
I feel like if I take time off now I don't have an excuse and I will instead have to take my holiday hours as pay. Which would be fine.. But if others have had or been paid for all their holidays hours already and are still getting paid for not going to work then that is unfair

YANBU to be annoyed, but try to think about the bloody brilliant 750 thousand people who applied to work for free for the NHS, instead.

@rowlett I've been there 10 years now and the other staff who have been there longer than me had always just had 2 weeks holiday a year and never questioned it. They were very angry when I brought it up but nothing was ever said and no mention of back dating holidays owed to them from the past.
The no break thing is not too bad most of the time except when we are flat out in the tourist season as a break would be good. But there is nowhere to take a break anyway except to stand in the kitchen. With only 1 staff member in to take a break would mean we would have to close the shop while we do so which is not viable.

@HarrietTheShy yes they are amazing and we have many people in our community who have been amazing and got together to help everyone who needs anything, from dog walking, to phone calls or medications picking up. We are all doing our bit.
And as much as you see some total idiots out there it's amazing to see what some people are doing to help and keep other peoples spirits up.

If everyone acted like them the country would fall apart. Who would stack the shelves of supermarkets, drive food around, serve old people at the village post office where it’s their only way of getting money etc?

Unfortunately from what I’ve heard from friends and family in key worker jobs (which includes the village shop, not everyone can get to big supermarkets), a lot of colleagues are taking the same view of either seeing this as a slacking opportunity or else revelling in the drama and deciding they need to self-isolate when they don’t have any of the right symptoms. It’s bringing some services to their knees when statistically there is no way 50%+ of their workers actually need to self isolate.

@notalwaysalondoner
Yes that's it excatly. If they were genuinely ill, self isolating as a household with vulnerable family members or mentally really couldn't cope with what's going on I would not have an issue. Neither of them are any of those things. We are all finding this situation hard, mentally and physically. I felt sick yesterday with anxiety for being in work, I'm very stressed with worrying about finances for us as a family. But unless I'm ill I will still be going to work.. As people need us to open. Not everyone can get to the supermarkets. You can't get a delivery slot for weeks here. Also public transport out in the sticks is terrible at the best of times and no one wants to be stuck on a bus for 40 minutes to get to tesco.

@lonelylou09 taking you holidays 'in cash' is a whole other rabbit hole but for now read up in the changes to holiday brought in last week.

If you aren't able to take holidays owed to you because of Covid-19 your employer must allow you a further two years to take them

Seems to me as if the unions are the CFs. They seem to be encouraging employees to claim that it's not safe to go to work at all even though the government hasn't at any point that all business's have to shut. If the business is open and you can't work from home, you go to work. But now GMB et al have decided there's a magic money tree. Good luck with that later in the year when businesses fold.