Furlough info please

filrock

Hi All,
Very briefly. My wife works in a local dementia care home (currently on lockdown to all non essential people)  and their plan for a covid case within the home is to move the bare minimum of staff full time into the home and put the remaining staff on sick pay.
We were wondering if there was a reason that furloughing staff wasn't an option?
Initially all I could think of was sick pay is less then 80% of wages once furloughed and that was all I had..!
Can they actually legally do that is another question I'm wondering also.
Thanks for taking the time to read. Any info or advice gratefully received.
Cheers

sharpe106

They can't put them on sick pay as nothing wrong with them. If they can furlough them or not is debatable. When you mean move the bare minimum staff in full time do you mean move them in 24/7 or go to minimum staffing levels?

filrock

Move them into the home 24/7 to care for the residents. Limiting the people in and out and PPE usage (if they had any..) 

sharpe106

Even the NHS are not making staff work 24/7. Unless they actually agree to this can't see how they can make staff live there even in the current climate.

filrock

Apologies. I wasn't clear enough. What I meant was they would move into staff accommodation within the home and work shifts like they do now. They would not leave the home when not on duty. Obviously some staff would be unable to do this due to childcare etc and it's these staff that would be unable to work and in my opinion require furlough. They management of the home are thinking of sending these people home and paying sick pay....!!?

sharpe106

They can't the ones they do not pay sick as they are not sick. This  could be on for a long time to this is over are they really suggesting that staff move in for all that time? 

filrock

It doesn't make sense to me either.
What I was concerned about was the thinking of sick pay when you can't enter the building rather than furlough. The more I say it out loud the more furlough seems the only option open to them should they decide to lay some staff of as such if they run on a skeleton crew.

gary83

unpaid leave/redundancy is the other options, furlough seems the most logical if they want these staff to still be there when it’s over.

its a tough one though, how do you decide who’s at home on 80% wages doing nothing & who isn’t allowed to leave the premises for 100% wages.

calcotti

Unfortunately furlough is not the only option, they could make people redundant or invite them to take unpaid leave.

sharpe106

The don't meet the criteria for furlough the work has not dried up. They are still making the same money. Just how they are spending it is different. How long do they expect to run on the skeleton crew for?