Furloughed, still working for 20% less pay while furloughed colleagues get same with no work?

[ditherwood]

I work for a small school, we were told a couple of weeks ago by email that all staff were having a pay cut of 20% which would take effect this financial month (April) and last until September. This was a huge blow as our salaries are already very low. A week later the company then sent an email around stating that some employees would be furloughed so would also be paid 80% by the government but wouldn't have to work.

Today I found out that two people in my team of five have been furloughed. They are thrilled, said they are looking forward to catching up with gardening and DIY etc. While I am running the course online, having to use my own resources, laptop, wifi, printer etc, develop new course material, manage a body of students who are all livid about having to go online for learning etc. We haven't been supplied with any instructions, resources or materials, were initially asked to consider being available for extended hours to facilitate student zoom calls etc (I said a firm no to this).

What would you do in this instance? It feels massively unfair, I can't see how I can manage financially on 20% less income, so am hugely stressed about that, having to figure out a new way of working and my direct team mates are getting the same albeit reduced pay and nothing is expected of them. Should I demand that I work 20% fewer days?

@ditherwood the 3 weeks is stated under “minimum furlough period”

www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#agreeing-to-furlough-employees

Furloughed staff can be rotated every 3 weeks (might be 4), this way all staff get a chance to work / not work equally. Could this be an idea to suggest to your management?

kirinm yes roughly the same I think. I do the same job as my colleagues, I'm more senior to one of them. Interesting points about furloughed staff being in a precarious position for redundancy.

Amotherof6 yes that's true, it does sound like redundancies are coming

coconuttelegraph you're right, I probably need to get some perspective on it

I know of some early years settings (still open for the key worker children) who have put their staff on a rolling furlough rota. So they work for 3 weeks, then swap with other staff and vice versa, so they each get a turn at being furloughed and working to keep it fair.

Cottipus so helpful thank you x

TinnedPearsForPudding loving this idea, am going to out it forwards thank you x

To be honest I think this is what the future holds for many people

Maryann1975 this is great news, am going to suggest it x

jenkimr yes seems likes it

So you have had an 80% cut while still being expected to work f/t?

I can see that originally, before they knew the Gvt arrangements for paying furloughed salaries. they could have asked everyone to take an equal cut, and carry on.

Once they knew about the Gvt arrangements they should have saved money as needed by furloughing staff, and paying full salary to those still working.

I would talk to your Union.

YinMnBlue exactly yes, they want us to work for 20% less, do more work, use our own resources and they've furloughed my colleagues who aren't working at all or using their own resources.

I agree they should pay full salary to us still working after they knew they'd furlough

The maximum you can claim for working from home for an employer, with no tax implications is £18 pcm (to cover utilities, space, etc) consumables (paper, printer etc) are separate and you should charge that back as expenses.

I've worked from home since July 2019. I haven't bothered claiming this as a) I work for a charity and b) I'm saving about £60 pcm on commuting costs.

SciFiScream good point thanks, I think my commuting savings covers my expenses

If you are using your own equipment to produce resources, I'm pretty sure that you own the copyright. If you use school equipment, they do. That's why anything I produce that uses my musical skills is done on my MacBook - the school uses PCs and I can prove the provenance of the work. I allow my schools to use my resources for free, but if we ever fell out, I would have the satisfaction of having my resources under my control rather than them belonging to the school. I could also sell them on places like TES quite legitimately.

I understand your frustration and I would not want a pay cut either. However, a local private school has just closed with no notice. Times are challenging. As someone else has said, you don't have commuting time or costs and you should be able to make use of your resources in future years and in other settings.

Some say that two thirds of people may lose jobs if shutdown lasts for 3 months.... maybe the furloughed sitting at home gardening but being paid the same as you will go first?

This is not the case. In assessing redundancies, furloughed employees should be considered part of the mix.

It could be that OP is less likely to be made redundant than her team for any number of reasons, but that would be true no matter who was furloughed.

Our company have furloughed anyone unlikely to be able to generate fees. They couldn’t run a business with only those staff if they did have to make redundancies later, unless they wanted to pay qualified personnel to do admin tasks.

Malbecfan really good and helpful points thank you. I will look into ownership of IP and will try to stay mindful of the bigger picture x

MintyMabel interesting points, thanks

They cannot cut your pay without you agreeing to it unless your contract says they can (unlikely). I refused a pay cut as my colleagues are all furloughed (only one left)

If you charge to them any broadband expenses etc become taxable. But you can claim tax relief.

Can you negotiate a cut in your hours? That's what we have done.

Tonemeth I'm going to try to negotiate fewer hours

okiedokieme I need to check my contract, I assumed they could just cut pay. I'm going to ask them to review pay cuts for those of us still working in light of furloughing

The government's 80% furlough scheme is up to £24K (80% of a salary of £30K). It is very generous for a government scheme, but if anyone earning more than that is being furloughed they will not be on 80% of their normal salary.

If you feel able to have a conversation you might ask how they decided who to furlough and who should work. Once you have that you might be able to say that, given the indispensable value of your work, you would hope to get more than someone whose work has been deemed dispensable.

You may find that those who have been furloughed are getting 80% of the 80%. That is what is happening at at least one workplace I know - everyone has been asked to take a 80% pay cut (and hours) and then they asked for volunteers to be furloughed and then they calculate the 80% from the reduced salary (though it doesn't affect pension contributions, which remain at the same rate).