I’ve just been informed I’m being furloughed from end of next week. Making up to full pay for now so not so bad. I’ve been working at home for the last four weeks and apparently my remote access will be revoked to prove I’m not actually working.
Not furloughed but working a 4 day week from Monday, until the 5th June. Other people doing the same job have been furloughed so there's a good chance it'll come when work dies up even more.
Furloughed today for three weeks.
Well due to the only colleague who wasn't Furloughed in my department being unable to satisfactorally work from home and refusing to come into the office I'm coming off Furlough and back into work on Monday. Not massively happy about going in but it's a big office and there's only about 5 people out of about 50 in so we are well separated.
It is my 4th week on furlough, I’m paid weekly and got 80% of my basic wage on the first week and every week after that.iv taken a fair hit as my basic is pretty poor but I make wages up by extra hours and a productivity bonus. But as I see it we have no cars to run apart from shopping trip we aren’t socialising eating out stuff like that 3 kids not being taken to clubs so on the whole we can batten down the hatches and get on with it.
Son2 is home and furloughed. There are no passengers at Heathrow, so not a lot of security officers required. He's on 80% salary, and home studying and lifting things in the garage. He is in the fortunate position that all his salary is being saved for pilot training.
Heathrow has a cash pile of 18mo turnover, it's not as if they could not have afforded to pay him, regardless. When it reopens, they will need their qualified officers back, so I doubt any redundancies.
There seem to be more than a few companies who are ‘furloughing’ employees whilst actually getting them to work as normal. I mean, how is anyone going to be able to police this properly during and especially after?
The T's & C's suggest that HMRC can ask for it all back on auditing. Power consumption will do for the big boys, you can't hide that and the accounts will show what's been paid for energy use. The inspectors can also ask the supplier for the bill.
We've all just been informed that we are going to have to take an 8% interim pay cut and that in conjunction with shift allowance being cut means that you'll actually been no better off or even financially worse off than those that have been furloughed.
That cant be right,?
I have no idea if I'm being furloughed. Or if I have a job. Or if I have a job, how long for.
Zero communication from work apart from a random phonecall form my boss once every 20 days or so saying they don't know what's going on with the business, if they can pay me, if they can furlough me, if they need me to do any work etc etc Though I did get asked to write up notes on everything I was working on just before lockdown.
Kind of weird since I am the main top-level administrator for our Office 365 set up. But supposedly everything is working OK. I did tell them that the security policies weren't all activated yet, but somehow that's not important?
Payday on Monday, so lets see what happens.
Dumbot.
Surely those furloughed will then be on 80% of wage - 8% - shift allowance.?
I think I'm approaching 4 weeks of being furloughed, the days are just blending together now.
I know some guys were upset when the first batch of us were furloughed, seeing it as they were working for pittance while we got 80% for going home. And where I'm sure we can get by on the 80% it's the not knowing what's going to happen after the payments stop.
We’ve all just been informed that we are going to have to take an 8% interim pay cut and that in conjunction with shift allowance being cut means that you’ll actually been no better off or even financially worse off than those that have been furloughed.
That cant be right,?
Depressingly so. We (pilots) have taken a 50% paycut while the rest of the company stays at home and is paid 80% + per diems. I can understand the 80% (top-up by the company) but I would have thought HMRC would raise an eyebrow at the tax-free allowances when someone isn't actually working.
We're told we're actually in a better situation and that nothing in the law says that the people furloughed are entitled to return to their jobs, but there's a limit to how long you can pay the mortgage on half-pay.
If you are Furloughed, can you go and do freelance work ?
Working for a different employer
If contractually allowed, your employees are permitted to work for another employer whilst you have placed them on furlough.
For any employer that takes on a new employee, the new employer should ensure they complete the starter checklist form correctly. If the employee is furloughed from another employment, they should complete Statement C.
Is the £2,800 upper limit the net or gross amount?
Well I manged to cock up the JRS application (as an employer)
Thought it would do the calculation for me ... Turns out it didn't. Under applied.
Now in HMRC contact hell.
Website actually worked fine to their credit.
May I ask for some advice?
My wife works in the back office of a large global Civil Engineering company and has run out of work. She been asking her manager and his Director for work, who've asked her to find some herself. When she has, she's been told its not appropropriate for her to do - leaving her with nothing. The nature of the job means that when staff are back out into the world, she'll be busy again.
Earlier this week the Director emailed her directly to state that "Senior Management were concerned she wasn't performing her duties, which isn't acceptable". She started to get emotional, on the basis she thinks they'll make her redundant.
This morning an corporate HR email arrived giving the options to raise concerns. She did, talked to HR in a tearful state about the concern of losing her job, and that's she's trying hard to help and feels she isn't supported by her managers. HR have return to say they've advised her manager of his option and he'll be in touch.
As they've furloughed 33% of their workforce already why won't they do this for her instead of dragging her through all this shite? Have we missed something?
Kryton...
1. Is the wife in a union? if not, sign up sharpish.
2. Are there any unions recognised by the company? If yes, pick on of them for question 1.
3. "asked to find some herself" is this in writing/email etc?
4. Does she have evidence of her completing work within her job role and authorisation? If yes, keep copies. How can she be not performing her duties if she can prove the work given to her has been completed on time etc.
5. Does her company have a grievance procedure, if so find it and read it. This may be an option to use later.
She could also speak to ACAS if she believes HR are not doing their job correctly. Make sure all emails are copied/printed and kept to back her up if the Management decide to play silly buggers.
Well, I came off furlough on Monday and back into the office and thought ok at least I'll be on with something and on full pay but oh no.... Got an email today saying that I was to be on a 4 day week and had apparently agreed to this!! First I had bloody heard. Anyway I've accepted this as it's probably better to be in the job as opposed to loads of others who may be made redundant when this lifts, but then I was told of several others who have been asked to go to 3 days a week.... Now this is a bit of a piss take as I would have been better off on furlough if this happens so fingers crossed I keep busy enough to avoid a further drop in hours.
Donks- you want to check what will happen to any holiday entitlement now you've "agreed" to a reduced working week and should it come to the worse, will redundancy be based on prior pay or the 4 day pay?
Thanks crazyjenkins01
1&2 no but she’ll look into it.
3. yes, every thing I posted an alluded to is in email, which is good for any tribunal.
4. Yes, she has to record her hours in a timesheet as her work is billable to their client, so any work she has done is recorded. Yesterday she was asked to record using an item “Waiting to be tasked” for 7.5 hrs after yet again asking for work in the morning.
5. Yes likely, they are a very big corporate. I’ll ask her to look it up.
Good to hear she has plenty of evidence then Kryton!
I'm struggling to see what the company will be able to do then to be honest. If she has been recording her time on a timesheet (which I assume, like me, would need to be authorised?) and if the work she has done can be produced to prove she has done it, then she is fulfilling her duties. If the company aren't giving her any more duties due to CV19 that isn't her fault or problem. They have also given a number to book against for waiting time, so they know she isn't doing a lot, and are recording that for their budget.
She 'should' be safe from redundancy as if she is made redundant, when everything goes back to normal the company cant just fill that position again, and there is nothing to suggest a disciplinary and dismissal would happen either. that doesn't stop furlough being used as an option though.
Union advice is the best bet next, but she'd need to be a member first!
Hope it goes OK.
DONKS, ask for the signed record that you were informed and agreed to this.
Yep indeed. The obvious answer is to put her on furlough for a bit, which she’d prefer as we have our two kids at home, but we can’t work out why they don’t just do it and stop all this messing about. I think it’s because her output forms part of a paid contractual fulfilment to thier client and to remove her from the business is admission they cannot fulfil that.
To cap it off their global MD launch a video last week explaining their first quarter and that at this time they were a company of the three c’s with regard to looking after thier staff - compassion, care and consideration...
Well, my wife's being asked to go on Furlough by her line manager, given until after tomorrow's "big announcement" to think about it. But then also asked to train another member of her team to do her job tomorrow, likely to be her last day.
Obviously she'll accept, but also spend the time looking for another job as it would appear that certain public transport companies that supply her business have huge revenue issues that won't be over by June... or even an extension to September 2021! Suspected outcome is 2 months Furlough follow by redundancy with statuary pay (13yrs / 12 weeks).
Looks like I'm furloughed from Monday.
🤔
Small question for my son here guys.
Should he get the 80% pay on his normal payday?
Pretty much, I got 50% normal pay & 50% furlough pay, as I was furloughed for half of the pay period.
Now back at work with a shed load of work to catch up on for now..
I understood that three weeks was the minimum furlough period. If you aren’t off for three weeks, the employer can’t claim for it.
Day 2 for me. Not sure how I fitted work in to be honest...
Should he get the 80% pay on his normal payday?
If he’s on a regular wage then 80% of that on usual payday
If he’s on variable wage 80% of the financial year average up until the day he was furloughed.
I paid my staff on Friday and it worked out ok for all except for 1 lady whose hours built up over the year. I spoke to HMRC and they agreed that an average of the last 6 months would be a fair way to calculate it but unfortunately I had to stick to the guidance.
That assumes the business paid the pay on that day. They may have to pay the pay when they have the money in to pay it. They could be broke, out of cash. A lot of businesses dont have money in the bank to cover bills if there are no sales coming in.
Some businesses can afford to payout before the money comes in from the government, others won't be able to. They may not have a helpful bank to cover them in the short term either. Banks dont move fast.
As always, thanks for the info guys.
He should get paid this Friday so fingers crossed.
Not sure there will be a company left for him to go back to after all this but I hope I'm wrong.
BA have just announced 12,000 redundancies and Airbus have put 4,000 on furlough in the uk.
@Trimix The scheme allows for payroll to be submitted in advance of payday allowing the money to be in the bank on the right day for the employee. IT does mean the employer may have to run payroll earlier than normal.
Yep. Found out on the TV news that BA are to make 12000 staff redundant.
They refused to put pilots on the furlough scheme as we might be needed. So we are on half pay for 2 months instead, now on notice of redundancy.
Surely the furlough scheme barely touches a pilots salary? A Long Haul BA Captain is on what? £165k/y £13.5k per month? Even a co-pilot is what...£70k? Then + hourly duty rate at £13/h?
I wish! Stop reading the daily mail.
Year one pilot, having paid their own training loan of over £100,000 starts on £26000.
BA furloughed staff on 80% of all salary. Some old contract staff members will be on plenty more than £2500/month.
Pilots were considered too in need for furlough but are working on half pay for Apr/May.
I've got to the bottom of why my pay is short, they're calculating weekly wage/80% x 52 weeks - Holiday pay
Is that a requirement or have they just thrown their own spin on it? I know its "free" money but the extra 8% taken is enough to make a difference
The rules state you are allowed to keep your holiday entitlement and don’t have to take annual leave during the period of Furlough. They can’t enforce that upon you. My wife’s company tried to pro rata holiday entitlement this week and backed down after many complaints...
https://www.xperthr.co.uk/faq/can-an-employee-take-annual-leave-while-on-furlough-leave/165128/
On a related note, we're running a survey at work to track people's experiences of being furloughed (we're a people/HR comms business). If you have a spare 5 minutes (ha!) this morning, it would be really useful if you were able to tell us how it's going for you.
It's all anonymous, and there's also a prize draw too.
Survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/S5NQ6FC
Thanks!
@ambientcoast Can you give more details on who your company is and what the prize(s) is/are?
I don't want to just send the link to furloughed colleagues without knowing a bit more about it. Thanks
@kryton they've just struck the holiday pay of the total furlough for e.g 28 days x day rate then/52 then take that figure off the 80%
On going back to work Redrow are opening there sites from the 18th no word yet if we'll be going back as my firm pulled everyone off site before the sites even closed down
@bentandbroken Sure - there's bit more info at the survey link, but we're at welovechatter.com
In a nutshell we help businesses communicate with their people, and we're doing quite a bit of research around the whole coronavirus/furlough situation at the minute because it really is uncharted territory for pretty much everyone. No-one has ever been through this before, but we're hearing lots of anecdotes around good/bad experiences from people who are furloughed, so we're just trying to galvanise these into something tangible.
As for the prize, I have no idea as I'm not managing it. I'll check and come back. Hold tight. :o)
Currently several oilfield service companies are laying off and refusing to furlough.
Stating that "this is for economic reasons not covid 19"
No shit. Economic reasons brought on by covid 19.
Dick move and the fact that employees have gone to the press with it in the case of big red I have zero sympathy for the companies.
