Has anyone not been furloughed but asked to take a substantial pay cut?

[CaroleBaskin]

While doing the work of the majority of the furloughed workforce?

This is what my work has done. I know others workplaces are doing the same. We have a small team of people remaining who have also had to take pay cuts - I believe at the same amount but you never know. This pay cut is almost as much as the furloughed workers.

If you have had this how are you feeling about it?

Do we have to sign something to say we agree?

My DH is Head Office management and has had a 20% pay cut. Same work, just from home. It's partly because the rest of the workforce (manufacturing) has been furloughed and are on 80%.

We're just glad that DH still has a job because at 55 it would be hard to find one with similar pay.

I'm working from home doing exactly the same on full NMW but also still glad to be employed. We should have had bonuses and pay rises in our April pay but it looks like that has been cancelled.

@thewinkingprawn totally understandable. Such hard times. Fingers crossed they start paying these grants Asap.

I really hope these employers that ask their employees to work for 80% aren't planning to claim the furlough for them

@Tonyaster no my husband company has made it very clear those on furloughed are furloughed and a grant will be sought under the Job Retention Scheme. They’ve all had access to laptops disabled. My DH letter makes it very clear his reduction to 80 per cent is not anything to do with the Job Retention Scheme. He had the option of taking redundancy if he didn’t want to drop to 80 per cent.

HMRC have already set up a COVID fraud squad. So many people will take advantage of the scheme (saying employees were furloughed when they were not). They should throw the book at companies that do that.

@Tonyaster our payslips this month say furloughed on them so it would be quite clear to staff if we were claiming furlough and they were having to work anyway. I don’t know whether this is the same for everyone but that is certainly what our accountants who do our payroll have done and I imagine what HMRC would expect to see. I guess that’s not to say that you couldn’t agree that with your employees but you’d be risking someone shopping you.

@Tonyaster my DH company also reserve the right to furlough him at a later date if circumstances change such that they would no longer to be able to afford to maintain his employment.

My DH is on a 3 day week, so 33% pay cut. There has been no extension to project deadlines and they are making redundancies.

It’s very unprecedented times I thought if you were furloughed by your employer you can’t work for them at all. You get 80% of your normal take home pay subject to the government cap of £2,500. @mangocoveredlamb if that is a 50% drop for your DH then he must have had a take home pay each month in excess of £5,000 that is huge and surely you’d have savings if he earns that amount plus you work that’s a huge income each month. Right now companies will be trying to survive as best they can and hanging on to a job is essential if you can...not easy. Just hope it ends sooner rather than later

We haven't received anything formal. Just a short phone call from senior management saying we are asking everyone to take x pay cut.

Those that have been furloughed have received a letter.

Yes, at my company everyone has - right from the CEO to the PA's. Obv it's weighted, so CEO has taken a much bigger cut than PAs etc. It's shit. I don't think this is the end and I do think I'll be out of a job soon.

@ilovebrie8 not a take home of £5k. The £2.5k is gross so subject to ni and income tax. As is my husbands income. I work for the local authority so my pay is about 1/4 of his. we also live in the SE and have a large mortgage and hugh childcare costs (which we are still paying because otherwise our childminder will go bust and not be there when this is all over), and yes we have some savings.

My point really was that the voluntary furloughing isn’t an option for us but will leave my husband with more work for less pay, while I deliver a COVID-19 critical role. We are more fortunate than many, possibly than most, but that doesn’t mean it’s not stressful.

@ilovebrie8 that’s not a huge salary for the SE. Housing costs, childcare and commuting are so huge.

To put into perspective our Nanny takes home 2k per month for 4 days per week and we pay another 1k in tax and pension - so 3k a month in total. We have furloughed our Nanny (as otherwise we couldn’t afford to keep her), but we still have to find that money at the end of April.

I’m self employed and earn just over the 50k profit and get nothing, and my work is drying up fast.

My DH has his own Ltd company and charges a daily rate. He was asked to take a 20% rate cut but since he knew the person paying it had not had any reduction in the money flowing into the project he found a clever way to resume. This was a simple case of someone trying it on. With everyone working from home the project is not flowing as usual so he is not able to charge as many days per week so I effect we are charging about 80% of the usual amount. If he had accepted the 80% fee reduction we would’ve been even worse off.

Sorry the way I’ve been told that is the net figure whatever you take home each month you will get 80% of that under furlough. Subject to a maximum of £2,500. Am sure it was on bbc news yesterday and this question was asked to one of the financial experts as people were confused if it was gross or net.

@mangocoveredlamb that is why I was saying his take home must be over £5k if it was a 50% cut. Sorry if any misunderstanding I’m just going by BBC phone in on TV on this topic. Times are incredibly tough and most people having to do a lot more work for less ££. I’m in same position but right now a job better than no job but it’s incredibly stressful

My DH has had to drop to 4 days with the resulting 20% pay cut and has lost his bonuses, so it's a lot more. He'll come down a tax bracket which helps, but we'll still be about £600 worse off per month and lose about 10k from bonuses.

It's the best option though. We'd be in financial trouble if he was furloughed. Hopefully it won't happen - he's the company’s highest earner (salesperson) so he is important to them. I'm also really busy (sales too) and already work part time, so we're both able to have a day off each week to spend with DS. I know how lucky we are.

@ilovebrie8 no you’re mistaken, it’s up to £2500 gross (would be £35,000 a year gross) so tax, NI, student loan, etc, will then come out of that before it comes to you.

If people are furloughed they cannot do any work for their company, my company made this very clear. I manage a shop, I have the keys, in theory I could stroll in and do a tidy up and probably no one would know but it has been made very clear that I must not do any work for the organisation.

I think people talking about working on this thread are in positions where they are still employed by their company with actual work to do but have had to take a cut in salary. That is not the same as being furloughed.

Yes that's true @Ragwort

@BuffaloCauliflower I'm not sure what calculator you're using but 2.5k a month is 30k

@CaroleBaskin sorry! No calculator just being a numpty.

An honest numpty... I'd have blamed the calculator.

We have been asked to take a voluntary pay cut of 10% for 3 months which I have agreed to.

My husband is a self employed builder so now not working or earning .

350 people in our company being furloughed but I am not one of them.

There will definitely be redundancies as well as this in the near future.

We are very lucky I earn enough even on 80 % to pay our bills and eat, and we have savings, but this will cripple many many people and we won't come back from this as an economy in the short term

@Iamblossom have you signed anything to confirm that you accept the pay cut?

No we were emailed a link to opt in or out and I have since been sent a confirmation email.

See we all just had a phone call and then nothing. Wondering on the legalities.