Furlough Pay for PAYE Agency Workers when Employer Fails to Admit they let staff go due to Covid 19

mcarter92

Hi All,
I began a job in January through a recruitment company/agency and paid weekly through PAYE through them. I was placed into a client company on an "On Going" temporary assignment to help with a backlog of work with no set end date. I had been rostered up until the middle of the summer on the clients offical rota so under the assumption I would be kept on until at least then, still receiving my weekly wages from the agency. However due to the slowdown, the client company decided they no longer needed temp workers and so got rid of the people on these contracts.
The client company are refusing to admit that the reason for the lay off was a direct result of Covid 19, and that the timing was right to get rid of temporary staff as the backlog off work had been complete. (This was only possible due to the slow down in normal work so it really was a result of Covid 19)
Speaking to the recruitment agency, they say I am not entitled to furlough, as the client company have not officially said I have been let go due to Covid 19 (even though it truly was)
So the agency said nothing they can do to help with as I could have been let go at anytime from them and they cannot put in a claim for furlough for me even though I was PAYE with them
And due to nobody hiring agency workers at the moment, it will be a couple of months before I may get another role.
Any advice if I should receive this furlough payment, would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks folks.

calcotti

Furlough is entirely at the discretion of the employer. They are under no obligation to apply to the JRS.

mcarter92

calcotti said:

Furlough is entirely at the discretion of the employer. They are under no obligation to apply to the JRS.

So it is completely up to the agency to do this as opposed the client am I right? What if the agency do not have any work for me currently how can they put me on furlough?

mcarter92

calcotti said:

Furlough is entirely at the discretion of the employer. They are under no obligation to apply to the JRS.

Any reason why an employer would not claim for furlough ? Surely in their interest to apply for JRS

LilElvis

mcarter92 said:

calcotti said:

Furlough is entirely at the discretion of the employer. They are under no obligation to apply to the JRS.

Any reason why an employer would not claim for furlough ? Surely in their interest to apply for JRS

Cashflow. They have to have sufficient cash in the bank to initially pay the wages and then claim it back from HMRC.

mcarter92

The government hasn’t been clear on how furlough will work for agency workers on contract for services. We must have the furlough start and end date for anyone that we furlough through this scheme. One would assume that because your assignment was not paused but was ended furlough does not apply. 

The above is what the agency is saying and that I I’m not going to be getting anything. I would argue against saying I had been rostered up until the middle of the summer, albeit on a temporary contract I could have been laid at any time regardless. 

SXX

mcarter92 said:

calcotti said:

Furlough is entirely at the discretion of the employer. They are under no obligation to apply to the JRS.

So it is completely up to the agency to do this as opposed the client am I right? What if the agency do not have any work for me currently how can they put me on furlough?

I was on agency payroll on 28.02.2020 and finished my temp booking on 03.03. Since then no work from any agency due to Covid 19 but agency won't furlough even though their business ops have been severely affected by Covid 19 and they are therefore eligible for the scheme. The REVC (recruitment industry membership org) says  a business has to identify those workers for whom it will not have any work for at least 3 weeks.    So I would fit into this category as my agency has no work for me due to Covid 19.  This is what Citizens advice bureau says : if your place of work has shut down or there’s no work for you because of coronavirus, you can carry on getting paid. Your employer might use the government Coronavirus Job Retention scheme to pay you while there’s no work to do.
I said to my agency that I would accept deferral of my payment until they received the grant from HMRC if that would help them.   They still won't furlough nor can they provide me with any work due to their temp business having ceased due to Covid 19.