Furlough Money Worries

thehig

I understand we dont really have answers for what is going to happen with this yet, but let me tell my situation. 
I work for Alpha LSG (Catering company Airport based) who were actually taken over by DNATA in January (DNATA are part of Emirates). I have been there for 2 years on a permanent contract.
I was laid off the other day due to Covid 19 impact on aviation , they described it  as a temporary lay off and told me I'm still an employee and I'll be on unpaid leave. They also said I should claim the guarantee pay for lay off workers (thinks its £145 every 3 months)  and they encouraged me to take alternate work on a temporary basis, providing I call to inform them of the details.

When I asked about the Government 80%, they said nothing is known about this yet, so while I could be paid 80% of wages, they wouldn't commit and cant say when the payments would happen.

This makes me suspect my company have no intention of paying any wages out, because it looks like they have to pay employees first then claim it back from the government, basically their pulling a Whetherspoons.
Do you think there are companies out there who intending to keep staff on as Furlough workers, but not bothering to apply for Government grant because they dont want to pay the wages out and wait to be reimbursed. 
Is there a chance that towards the end of April these companies will receive the money to forward to their employees, as there are many companies who probably dont have the cashflow to pay employees anything with the business closed.

mwarby

 suspect for many it comes down to the admin cost of claiming, and the fact that they will need to make up the 20%

thehig

mwarby said:

 suspect for many it comes down to the admin cost of claiming, and the fact that they will need to make up the 20%

I thought the employer doesnt have to make up the 20% ? A lot of companies wont be paying 20% wages while the business is not generating any cash flow

mwarby

It would depend in your contact of employment, many don't have provisions for furloughing in place. Many companies especially those emoloying unskilled workers, rely on the fact that they can just make redundancies(and if employee is there less than 2 years it costs them nothing to do so) and easily rehire suitable staff later if needs be

7Phil

The employer does not have to make up the 20%. There may be a bit of hassle organising the furlough but in theory it should be straight forward.
For those with the slight headache of doing some extra paperwork over the furlough matter then I say we are all being put in unusual scenarios and have different roles to play to help society pull through that are not part of our normal life.
Besides, it is probably part of their job to sort these types of things out anyway and if they are lucky enough to still have a job then just get on and do it.

As for your exact question in your circumstance I don't have any advice I can offer. It depends on employment terms and how it all happened, what the company's next move is, etc. It seems based on what you say that you are a classic case for furlough but it depends on the finer details. I also don't know how working in the aviation sector goes - there might be extra terms that deal with fluctuations in demand.
Hopefully you will get some clear news soon.