employer deducting weeks holiday allowance in return for 20% furlough top up

toxichilli

Hi 
Please can anybody advise if the following is allowed, When placed on furlough my employer stated the following conditions were applicable, in return for giving us 20% on top of the government 80% we had to agree to the following - a deduction of 5 days from our annual holiday allowance (1 week) and on return to work agree to work up to 35 hrs unpaid (1 week) if we didn't agree then we would only receive the government 80% and we also lose our bonus due to get paid in May.  

Jeremy535897

If you did agree to it, then it applies, unless it would breach statutory rules, for example on minimum holiday entitlement (see https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights). If you had already done what was required for you to be contractually entitled to your bonus by the date of the furlough agreement, you should still be entitled to be paid it in May.

TheBanker

I don;t think the employer is obliged to make up the 20%, so they can impose conditions. I guess you are trading 1 week of holiday and 1 week of unpaid overtime for 20% of your salary while you're furloughed. This is 10 days of your time for 1 day a week of salary. So it makes sense if your furlough time is more than 10 weeks. 
Personally, if my employer made up 20% of my wages, I would be grateful and happy to work some additional hours when things were back to normal - especially if it's a small business struggling to keep going or re-build a client base etc.