Having to work while furloughed

[drunkyhumptydumpty]

My partner has received an email from work saying that he must work tomorrow.
He must travel to work put out all sanitary/nappy bins by 8 am and wait until they've been collected after 1pm.

He has been furloughed on the 30th March.

Can they ask this of him?

Furlough can be ended at any time, but the company cannot claim the money from HMRC for a period of less than three weeks. He should clarify if he is now back at work or if a new period of furlough will start flagged his shift tomorrow.

He absolutely should. But he won't :(
The company would hold it against him.

Now he has to go and sort out sanitary and nappy bins that have been sat there since the pub closures.

OP tell him to resign.

Sorry but that is absolutely out of the question. We need that income post CV and they dominate the industry.

He can volunteer as long as it does not 'generate revenue or provide a service for or on behalf of the organisation'. So no, can can't go and empty bins etc as that would be 'providing a service'

*he can't

Name and shame OP. You are anonymous. .. and pretty sure HMRC don't scour the internet to verify sources of their allegations. They just investigate and if it's true , it's true and if it's not then nothing happens. (I am an investigator for another Gov dept. )

Or at least give us a bloody big clue .. then we can report them for you.. anonymously .

Its not HMRC I'm worried about. I want them to find out. It's the employer.

They are vindictive. There is a social media policy.

I would love to make an anonymous twitter and tag them and HMRC and ask them to justify their request.

I lack the testicles.

An anonymous report could come from anyone. I doubt your DH is the only employee being told to disobey the furlough rules if they are the biggest player in the Sanitary services industry. . .

They're not in sanitary. He just has to collect his bins for collection for the sanitary company to collect.

They can call him back from furlough any time they like. They'd need to pay him his normal rate, obviously.

If then they declare to HMRC that he was not working for the whole time, and seek government funding for 80% of his salary, that will be fraud, and is likely to get them into trouble if audited, which many businesses will be, undoubtedly.

But they are not doing anything wrong to him by requiring him to come into work. And they haven't done anything wrong to HMRC yet because the portal isn't up, and won't be for a while.

But they are not doing anything wrong to him by requiring him to come into work. And they haven't done anything wrong to HMRC yet because the portal isn't up, and won't be for a while.

That's contrary to what the people above have said.

Also if they were going to pay him surely they would've said.

I think I know who the employer is. They are absolute cunts and I'm sure they would make your husband suffer for refusing to go in - so although I completely agree with your anger, don't hold it against your husband. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I've told him I'm not mad at him. I was mad he didn't believe me. Because a big company with HR and Lawyers wouldn't possibly get it wrong

They aren't getting it wrong. They're just throwing their weight around.

He will go in. He will do his job. He will conform. And I will put a beer in the fridge for when he gets back.

But I am still mad at them.

Sorry but that is absolutely out of the question. We need that income post CV and they dominate the industry

Well think very carefully about what you do next. Your anger and annoyance now could very well see your dh out of work. Don’t let strangers on the internet whip you up in to doing something that will only effect you.

Can you imagine if some how they traced your Twitter or anonymous tip off back your your dh? Yeah I think yes really thank you for that...

I've said. I wish I had the balls to do it.
I don't. I won't even name the employer on here.
If they pull this again I will call HMRC.

But without a shadow of a doubt they are going to benefit from the work that the Government are paying from. And I'm mad at that.

”That's contrary to what the people above have said.”

Yep. Just because they said their view first doesn’t make them right.

His employer can stop and start furlough whenever they choose. It just means they won’t then be eligible to claim government funding, as to claim government funding, furlough needs to be for a period of at least three weeks.

When the HMRC portal is up, if the company claim he was furloughed the whole time, they will then be doing something wrong, probably fraud. At the moment they haven’t done so.

His employer can stop and start furlough whenever they choose.

But they can't @flowery Furlough is for a minimum of 3 weeks. They furloughed him on the 30th March.
And he will remain furloughed after tomorrow.
They are not choosing to bring him back to the work.

They want him to do this because it's something that urgently needs doing and they don't have the remaining man power to do the task.

They can call him back from furlough any time they like

No, they can’t. It’s a minimum of three weeks before he can be called back to work. And I don’t think it can be done with a day’s notice. My furlough letter said a week’s notice but I don’t know whether that’s a universal thing or just my employer.

Oh good grief.

Furlough is not an employment law 'thing'. There is nothing in any legislation anywhere saying that if someone is on furlough it must be for three weeks. There is no legislation about furlough at all. Because it's a funding scheme for employers, not a leave entitlement/requirement for employees.

However, for an employer to claim funds from HMRC for furlough, it has to be for three weeks.

Clearly there are going to be times where an employer places people on furlough and then things change and they need people back at work. This is fine, and is perfectly allowed. If business picks up again, employers aren't 'banned' from calling people back, that would be ludicrous and anyone who has said employers have to stay shut down regardless of business circumstances is talking nonsense, and without any basis in fact.

All it means is that if the employer calls people back off furlough, they then won't be able to claim funding for the period people have been off. Which means that in practice most employers won't call people back within three weeks unless absolutely necessary as it means they will lose a lot of funding. But they are absolutely not prohibited from doing so.

What people's employers have put in their individual furlough letters is entirely a matter for them, including how much notice will be given for bringing people back.

All I’ve done for the last two weeks is advise HR professionals, small business clients and also accountants about furlough. I’ve written lots and lots about it, talked about it, researched it, made videos about it, pored over the government guidance, it is my entire life at the moment. Unfortunately.

I don’t claim to be an expert, purely because no one is, but I certainly know more than the vast majority of people!