can an employer refuse to apply for the job retention scheme ?

Kellydeacon123

My daughter has been placed on temporary lay off, and the company she works for are saying they will not be applying for the Job retention scheme, can they do this ?
they will pay her the £29 for 5 days over 3 months - SGP !!
she has worked for them for nearly 10 years. 
any advice would be appreciated, thank you

Jeremy535897

It depends on her contract of employment, but I would be surprised if they can legally do this. Your daughter cannot force them to apply for the scheme.

phillw

I've not seen anything that compels an employer to apply. It was setup to allow an employer to retain their staff, but if they don't want to retain their staff then you can't force them to.
You would have to look at your contract and go to a tribunal if they aren't honoring anything in it. 
There are a few reasons why they wouldn't.
1. They might not be able to afford to pay it and wait for the government to hopefully pay it back eventually. However I would hope that in this circumstance they would consider negotiating that they would apply and pay the money when it arrives. This obviously doesn't help in the short term, but it's better than nothing.
2. They haven't been paying PAYE and don't want to have to admit it.
3. They want staff to resign so they don't have to pay them off.