Furlough. Can my boss do this? Seems unfair.

[Campervan69]

Just wondering if my boss is allowed to do this it seems very unfair. When the schools closed my boss told me I would have to work shorter hours because he refused to let me work from home although he did agree to everybody else who does the same job working from home.

The following day he closed the Firm down so I never actually worked these hours and normally I would work a 40-hour week.

I've been pressing him as to whether he will be furloughing me and have now received this email:

"Insofar as the furlough payment is concerned, I take a view that, for example, if we returned to work tomorrow, I would have expected you to work 5 days a week from 9am to 1pm as agreed. As such, I can only claim 80% of your new working hours accordingly."

The seems very unfair as the only reason he has cut my hours was because of the coronavirus pandemic. I was receiving full pay in February which the assessment is based upon. Is it legal for him to do this?

Interesting so he's doing it so he can pocket the difference?
Keep your correspondence and report to hmrc op.

Qgardens I am being a bit pathetic and haven't emailed him back yet as it stresses me to the max when I have any correspondence with him at the moment he has been so unpleasant. I need to think of the right wording to send the email otherwise he makes it into a battle which just sends my anxiety through the roof. Anyone any good at wording things? I'm not quite sure what to say to him.

I'm not sure about how to word it but I would be mentioning the 28th February and that it is in both of your interests to get it right as you wouldn't want any audits showing up problems and all the furlough money to be in jeopardy.

Have you in email or physical writing agreed the reduced hours? If not then delete my middle sentence below.

Dear boss, you have told me I was being put into furlough from (1 April) as I haven't worked in April. I've been reading up on my rights under the furlough scheme and I understand the calculations is 80% of my February salary which is £xxxx. This is what I am expecting as my April gross pay (less the normal tax deductions obviously). My planned reduced hours for April are not relevant as I went to furlough and didn't sign a revised contract.

If this is not your intention, please can you set out the reasons why in an email as HMRC's rules are clear and I will run your reasons past ACAS so we are both clear we are doing things properly. With such a new scheme that is going to be subject to later government checks, I'm sure we both want to apply the rules right.
Thanks (your name).

Cross post with oddboots

With Real Time Information reporting, HMRC already know what everyone paid via PAYE earned on 28th February (and every other pay period) and will be able to check claims against this information before paying it.

Zebrasinpyjamas that is wonderful thank you I'm going to leave it a few days because I don't get paid till the end of April and I just can't cope with the stress at the moment but I will send him that probably on Friday really appreciate it.