Employer refusing to pay furlough

[furloughfury]

It's all a bit complicated, I'm at estate agent in London and not able to work from home as Co refuses to pay out for laptops/phones etc.
We've been furloughed since start of lockdown, some are going back now but limited numbers and as I'm part time I'm not one of them. Likely I'll be on furlough till end of June.
Co have said we might not qualify for furlough as we're part paid commission and says in our contracts it's discretionary (I've looked and it doesn't say this in mine). They have said they'll pay us a top up commission but this must then be paid back over next 12 months. I have spent a month chasing my director to see if they have confirmed with HMRC if we qualify but I'm constantly told don't know yet?! We're a big company with 100+ offices!
Any advice?

Several things to consider:

The question of what amounts your employer is eligible to claim from HMRC and the question of what you are entitled to receive from your employer are two separate things. The rules of the furlough scheme are what defines the former, your contract of employment (and any recent variation to it) are what determines the latter.

It’s not a question of whether you are eligible for furlough at all, only of whether the commission element of your pay can be included in the claim This is a useful article explaining it.

What you are entitled to receive depends on what you’ve agreed. You need to have agreed to be furloughed and this agreement needs to be set out in writing. What exactly does it say about what pay you will receive?

Thank you for the article very useful, our contracts clearly set out how much percentage commission we take of the offices monthly earnings as we work on a pool commission basis for the whole team plus our basic wage. When agreeing to be furloughed the company said they would be using the average of the last twelve months option to calculate as obviously our wage fluctuates each month.
Now we're being told with very vague reasons it might not be possible for the co to claim it, I've asked if they've tried and been met with a don't know and face potentially having to pay back the furlough money I've received in my pay for the last 2 months, they'll just take it out my next 12 months wages so I have no way to stop them

As in as per the gov guidelines are commission structure is written in our contracts and our monthly wages based on this so would def be covered in the scheme

” When agreeing to be furloughed the company said they would be using the average of the last twelve months option to calculate as obviously our wage fluctuates each month.”

Ok well if they told you that’s how much they were going to pay you, with no caveats and no conditions, that’s what you’re entitled to receive.

”Now we're being told with very vague reasons it might not be possible for the co to claim it”

That’s not your concern, unless they’ve put a condition in the furlough agreement that you will only receive that money if the company can claim it back.

”I've asked if they've tried and been met with a don't know and face potentially having to pay back the furlough money I've received in my pay for the last 2 months, they'll just take it out my next 12 months wages so I have no way to stop them”

Furlough money is what the employer claims back from HMRC, it’s not a payment you are or are not entitled to. You going on furlough and receiving 80% of your pay is a contractual thing agreed between you and your employer.

As per usual, if your employer doesn’t pay you what your contract/other relevant agreement says they’ll pay you, it would be an unlawful deduction from wages.

Ok thanks for all your help @flowery