80% WAGES - ANYONE GOT THIS CONFIRMED?

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Hi all I know it is still early days but most than likely there wont be any work for me left to do but my employer is keeping quiet and while I am still working from home I may not have anything left to do in the coming weeks (due to the nature of the business) Hence anyone had their 80% wage confirmed by employer yet? I wonder if anyone would choose to fire people rather than giving them the 80% grant from the govt? Also I wonder if the same will apply to people on probationary periods? My DH is sadly on 9months probation (hes been there 5 months now) but still very uncertain times as we have a massive rent to pay and our landlord just bluntly said NO to any rent delays or he will kick us out as it is his only rental property and it is really stressing me out :( :(

Both my DH’s and my employers are busily looking into this but the portal doesn’t seem to have been set up ready for companies to apply yet

It was only, what, Thursday pm it was announced? Its only been 2 full working days. Employers are people too, give them some space to breathe!

My employer furloughed me (and some other employees) yesterday. He said we will get the 80%, but as it is not available yet he will have to pay us himself out of his own pocket and then claim it back when it's available. As we were still operating until yesterday we will get paid normal full pay for March. Luckily he is in a position to do this - many other businesses won't be.

We are being told they can only furlough everyone of company has to shut and if company keeps running they can’t furlough individuals

Is this not true?

I've been contacted by my manager today to submit 12 weeks of payslips so they can work out my 80%. So hopefully they are going ahead with it. Big pub chain. As I'm on a zero hours contract my hours have varied, I'm worried that some weeks where I was off ill and only worked 10 hours are going to mean the average is lower than what we need to get by. We could have managed on 80% of my normal weekly wages as the loss was made up by DP not commuting, but if it's much lower we will really struggle.

@Nemo individual can be furloughed in their role as long as they don't do anywork during that period and other in. key role to keep the company going can still be active. Some of us in my company are being asked to work the same but with a pay cut, reduced hours with a pay cut or Furlough.

Thank you for confirming @FAQs

Still waiting to hear from my employer (huge company). It's very worrying they really should let us know.

We're in same boat. DH works for a very well known public transport firm.
Last shift yesterday no further info. Just been told to wait for updates.

We don't know if they're gonna lay him off or wait for the 80% pay?

I work in HR and we're all bloody confused. There has been precious little direction for employers on this and lots of misinformation confusing people.

I think the biggest problem will be bridging the gap between now (or when invoices begin to go unpaid) and when the government can provide the money at the end of April. We can probably bridge it, but smaller employers won't be able to and people will then be forced to take unpaid leave until they can be back paid.

If we think it's a shambles now, we ain't seen nothing yet.

*We are being told they can only furlough everyone of company has to shut and if company keeps running they can’t furlough individuals

Is this not true?*

No, the company may furlough some staff and keep a skeleton staff on. It doesn't have to shut completely but the need for the job must not be there (whilst the crisis is going on)

Please don't worry about your landlord. It will be ages until they could have any chance of an eviction.

www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/charities-included-in-the-government-s-coronavirus-wages-scheme.html
This might be helpful re charity ?

@Crimeismymiddlename where have you seen articles that say charities aren't eligible? Can you link to one of them please?

All the articles I've read and the government website just say all UK businesses are eligible, no mention of charities, and as charities are businesses if they were exempt surely that would be made clear?

I also work in charity retail, so hoping your manager is wrong. I've not heard anything from my employer yet.

Sorry @Bellyfullofbiscuits, didn't see your link before posting. That clears it up then.

Even without the worry of eviction surly knowing that at some point you have x number of months rent to pay back which will undoubtedly be impossible - how can people cope then?

An average rent around there is £1k for a 2 bed flat. If they don’t pay that for 3 months all of a sudden one day they owe another £3k to a landlord

Ive been furloughed today on full pay as my boss will top it up.

@TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot. This is just what I was told by my manager, who is as straight up as they come, and very clear-all the articles I have seen have stated all employers are entitled no matter what sector. I am hoping since the portal is not even up yet it is a mistake.

I've been furloughed today.
Huge leisure company. (Very much a Marmite company) I cannot fault their handling of this or their communication

So sorry @Crimeismymiddlename, clearly I need to learn to read properly.

I thought you said the articles you'd read said charities were NOT entitled. I had a bit of a panic and didn't check I'd read your post properly before replying.

Yeah I've had it confirmed today so that's some relief.
I'm being optimistic that this lockdown will be a few weeks then can start going back to work but will see .

@Crimeismymiddlename do you think your manager could just be thinking that as under normal circumstances the charity doesn't receive any government funding it won't receive any now?

It doesn't make financial sense for the charity to lay off all its retail staff when it could claim the government grant, especially if it's one of the big ones, that could mean paying redundancy to thousands of people. Even if all the staff were just put on unpaid leave I bet a lot would be angry or upset and leave the first chance they got, so there would still be a high cost of recruiting new staff.

Either way it wouldn't be good for the charity's image.

@theincrediblebookeatingmanchot. They are actually a great employer and charity as is my manager-I have been really, really happy with them. I agree, I know they will do everything they can to keep us on-it’s just the uncertainty at the moment.