Work rights, redundancy

[Hullabaloo9]

I am part of a small team working for a small business in the hospitality sector. We have been on furlough since March. Our boss told us last week that he does not intend to take up the new job support scheme as there is not even a third of our usual hours work to offer. He also told us that he does not intend to make us redundant.

His suggestion is that we all use our holiday that has been accrued to see us through the weeks after furlough ends, also working the maybe 2 or 3 hrs a week that is available.

We are all happy to do this to tide us over a short period but it's very unlikely that business will pick up by the time our holiday runs out. This will coincide with our usual quiet time anyway so no hope for our usual hours.

My question is if we agree to do this will we lose our right to request redundancy if we are left with massively reduced hours? I'm worried that by using our holiday and working so few hours for maybe 6 or 8 weeks it might be taken that we have consented to work the reduced hours.

I'm grateful for any advice, I have no clue on these matters but I dont want to lose out on a redundancy pay out.

The definition of furlough is “a leave of absence”, so if it ends, then you are back at work no?

Or do you mean when the government job retention scheme payments end? Your employer is legally obliged to pay you regardless of the scheme, unless you have agreed to an unpaid leave of absence.

If they have only just told you to take holidays, then that is not something you have to agree to either. They need to give you at least double notice to take holiday leave, so if they want you to take a weeks leave, they need to give you two weeks notice. Of course if you are all agreeable to taking leave then this is a moot point.

But the point is that they have to either a) pay you b) reach an agreement with you that you will take unpaid leave or c) make you redundant.

If you do not accept unpaid leave then you need to tell your employer they need to pay you or make you redundant. If they do not do either, then you need to either make a claim for unpaid wages or take it to employment tribunal, which you will win.

To your question about reduced hours, if you don’t want reduced hours then don’t accept reduced hours, you can’t be forced into it. Using up annual leave would not effect your hours, you have presumably taken leave in the past and it has never effected your hours?

Personally I think there are other legal issues here and your employer does not seem to be very well informed on employment law. Reading between the lines, it seems like they are saying, “I can’t pay you but I’m not making you redundant either“ - this is illegal, they need to do one or the other.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for replying. Can I just clarify, if we take our paid holiday over the coming weeks we will still be able to ask for redundancy when the holiday hours run out?

You can't usually ask to be made redundant. If you want to leave you give your notice and leave. This is much less costly for your employer.

You can of course volunteer if they are saying they are assessing for redundancies and will take volunteers first.

How long have you worked there? Does your company have a redundancy policy in your contract. As by law as far as I remember it's only 1 weeks pay per year worked there, plus your notice period you would get ( only once you've worked there over 2 years.)!

I have worked there for 9 years. I believe that we can ask to be made redundant if our boss cannot provide a reasonable amount of hours.