Being furloughed

[Rockchic7]

Hiya, hoping that someone on here is a bit more clued up on being furloughed than me.

I was told verbally by my manager in a very short phone conversation last week that I will be furloughed in 2 weeks time which I agreed to, I've had nothing in writing yet and wondered if anybody knows if your employer has to explain why they are not covering the 20% you will be losing?

We are currently running on a skeleton staff of 3 with 7 furloughed, both me a bf will be furloughed in 2 weeks (we swap with 2 who are already on furlough). Sales are really good though so cannot understand why they have furloughed so many people and left 3 people to cover the workload of 10.

We have asked our FD if the company's sales continue to be good would they consider paying the 20%? FD has passed it on to the MD who has not responded to us yet.

It makes us feel the company has seen a way of trading as normal but getting the government to pay peoples wage so in effect during this tough time they will make more money.

You aren’t the only one. My company told us they had £3m in the bank At the start of this but now suddenly are asking staff to take pay cuts despite it being business as usual for the staff! A lot of companies will be using this scheme to rinse the government but hopefully one day when jobs are plentiful again, they may get their comeuppance because I for one will remember this episode when it comes to loyalty.

I expect once this is all over HMRC will do some audits of some of the companies that applied (probably the ones that recorded very healthy profits last year and this year) and if companies are found to have used the system when they had plenty of money in the bank will be fined or made to pay it back.
HMRC will be looking for ways of making up the money dealt out during the virus and this will be an easy way for them to recoup some of it.

There are no criteria for the scheme that the company has to use up its own funds first.

Topping up is optional.

LP67824 -totally agree some companies are seeing this as an opportunity. Tbh I am looking forward to being furloughed because I just want to get out of the place, senior management has just abandoned us since Coronavirus hit, not heard from MD at all and maybe 2 emails from FD to my bf as he has had to take control of running the place day to day because the GM has been working from home for 2 weeks and he has now been furloughed.

I know the company doesn't have to top up people's pay but wondered if they had to explain why they have come to the decision not to. Especially when the sales are so good.

The company aren't allowed to get working staff to do extra to cover the furloughed staff. Staff should only be furloughed if they no longer have work to do.

Your company must have less work though otherwise how can 3 people do the work of 10

Some companies are furloughing favourite some staff on full pay whilst making others work, at least your company is trying share the load

Us 3 staff that are in are being run ragged, we are all sales staff who between us are covering missing sales / workshop / despatch & goods in staff. There has been a downturn in the workshop and some sales but for all this to be left to 3 people is exhausting and extremely stressful.

I've had nothing in writing yet and wondered if anybody knows if your employer has to explain why they are not covering the 20% you will be losing?

No, they dont.

Oh ok, I thought they probably wouldn't have to explain why.

Boris said rather than sack staff furlough then we will pay wages which is exactly what employers are doing and that's good otherwise people would be without money. They will furlough 7 as they cant have to many people in office at once for social distancing reasons

I totally agree with furloughing, for the right reasons.

Not looking forward to this next week. Doing some major pieces of work for someone on furlough.

Not looking forward to this next week. Doing some major pieces of work for someone on furlough.

That was me last week. The previous week the whole company was working. My team complies all the reporting. What is normal 3 peoples job fell to me as well as my own job. And because of Easter, I had 4 days to do it in. Thankfully, when I work on monday, most of the company was off this week, so it should be quieter.

As an aside, companies dont have to be facing immediate closure to use furlough. Our company has enough money to through the next 3 months. However, we really dont know what our customer base will look like when we get back. We have no idea how long it will take to get back on our feet and breaking even, never mind profitable after wards.

Theres no guarantee there will not be redundancy later in the year or even next year.

It's a complicated process. But companies dont have to be facing redundancies/closure right now to qualify.

I do agree with pp though. I think the money will come easily now, with audits later and it wouldnt surprise me if some companies end up having to pay it back.

I feel sorry for 2 of the people who will be in when me and bf are furloughed, one of the people coming back in will be our GM who although he can deal with some sales enquiries and quotes he does not know how to use our order/stock system, so he will not be able to help them process anything or even look to see if something he is quoting on is in stock or on order so he will have to get someone to help him. I'm sure he will not help out with deliveries in and out either as that's beneath him.

i really cannot see him being much help to them. Plus if furlough selection is fair why would somebody who cannot work our system be asked to come back in over staff who are capable?

If companies calculate the amount correctly, and staff do no work, there is no risk of paying back.

Companies are not supposed to use non-furlough staff to do more to cover for furloughed staff. It’s only meant to be used when there isn’t enough work.
Obviously furloughed staff projects will need to be picked up, but there should be enough of a downturn in activity that the staff remaining can cover without extra hours being needed.

If I were HMRC I’d be looking very closely at businesses whose turnover didn’t fall by much but who claimed furlough.