Furlough Questions

SalesAgent

Thank god for a forum like this with many people active and contributing knowledge, thank you!

if you can help with my questions that would be great.....

I have a letter from my employer stating they will furlough is for 80% but only if the government scheme (some seem to think it won’t in our company)....

Question is;

1) Do they need to still deduct tax / ni / pension? That’s what our letter states 
2) They have said if it is not able to put it in place we will remain completely unpaid, is that okay for them to do that? 

They want us to sign saying we agree to this, but I am skeptical about signing it.

thank you

calcotti

Any payments are still earnings in the normal way and therefore subject to Tax, NI and pension deductions.

Crumble2018

We have been told that the company actually needs to be losing money to be able to claim.  Ours is not currently, so I'm still having to go to work as normal.

SalesAgent

Our company has closed most branches (where I work) but kept a select few open.

Jeremy535897

Companies do not need to show they are losing money, but if they are not they may not need to lay people off. I'm not an employment lawyer, but I don't think they can make you sign away your statutory rights like redundancy. I think they are just trying to pass the risk of the scheme not applying to them on to you. Unfortunately you are not in a very strong negotiating position, because they could decide to make you redundant. They aren't obliged to put you in the job retention scheme.

Crumble2018

Jeremy535897 said:

Companies do not need to show they are losing money, but if they are not they may not need to lay people off. I'm not an employment lawyer, but I don't think they can make you sign away your statutory rights like redundancy. I think they are just trying to pass the risk of the scheme not applying to them on to you. Unfortunately you are not in a very strong negotiating position, because they could decide to make you redundant. They aren't obliged to put you in the job retention scheme

Yes - that was my point.  It's the JOB RETENTION scheme, and if a company is still trading normally, then they wont need to make you redundant.  We've had some members of staff here that thought they could just choose not to work and still get their 80%.

Jeremy535897

Your staff have no choice in the matter. I see you are the employer. It's up to you whether you apply. They couldn't make it contingent on being loss making because the principle of prudence in accounting would probably mean mot businesses (except supermarkets etc) are losing money.

calcotti

Crumble2018 said: We've had some members of staff here that thought they could just choose not to work and still get their 80%.

How depressing.

Crumble2018

Jeremy535897 said:

Your staff have no choice in the matter. I see you are the employer. It's up to you whether you apply. They couldn't make it contingent on being loss making because the principle of prudence in accounting would probably mean mot businesses (except supermarkets etc) are losing money.

LOL - no, I'm just an low paid employee that would rather not be here, but have no choice! We have been told we are not being furloughed as the business is still there and they want us to work and (I quote) "the goverment wants manufacturing to continue".

Jeremy535897

The quote is correct.