Furlough - paternity leave

[Robs20]

DH has just been told he is being furloughed as of next week because he is going on paternity leave on 22nd. The furlough is for an open ended period of time but likely to be many months.

I am wondering if this is discrimination and he should challenge it - does anyone know?

He has to agree to being furloughed they shouldn’t be just imposing it.

Discrimination maybe not but perhaps it’s arguable that it’s detrimental treatment for asserting the statutory right to take paternity leave. If he agrees to it though it’s going to be hard to argue that. Has he thought about not agreeing to it? Have other people been able to stay at work?

@migginsmrs thank you. Will talk to him. Everyone else is still around...
He is very busy but his counterpart in another region is not, so DH is being furloughed to allow the other guy to stay.

Government guidance is that people can be on paternity/maternity leave and be furloughed at the same time. You would get your standard occupational maternity/paternity pay that you would have got on mat/pat leave rather than the 80% of your salary

But are they allowed to select people to furlough based on the fact they are going on paternity leave?! Surely not...

To have a claim for discrimination he would have to have suffered some kind of detriment as a result of the discriminatory action

If he's being furloughed but still gets to be at home with his kid during the paternity leave period and gets his full occupational paternity pay, what loss has he suffered?