Employment Rights for staff re-employed for Furlough

Sarahee

I resigned from my job on 31st March but asked to be employed by my Employer to obtain Furlough, they have said no as said its not clear what employment rights I might have ref Redundancy as my old job has been filled.  Is there anything in Government Guidance regarding this I can give them to re-assure them? 

Jeremy535897

The guidance on rehiring says:

"If you made employees redundant or they stopped working for you after 28 February

If you made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 28 February 2020, you can re-employ them, put them on furlough and claim for their wages from the date on which you furloughed them through the scheme. This applies to employees that were made redundant or stopped working for you after 28 February, even if you do not re-employ them until after 19 March. This applies as long as the employee was on your payroll as at 28 February and had been notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 28 February 2020. This means an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 28 February 2020

If an employee has had multiple employers over the past year, has only worked for one of them at any one time, and is being furloughed by their current employer, their former employer/s should not re-employ them, put them on furlough and claim for their wages through the scheme."

The government isn't giving advice on the sort of question you raise. Plenty of employers are doing it, so they don't think it causes insurmountable problems. The issue you mention is one of whether there is continuity of employment, such that your redundancy entitlement would be based on your old period of employment. Government guidance is here:

https://www.gov.uk/continuous-employment-what-it-is

Sarahee

Thank you, they say the problem is my old job has been filled by someone else so they don't want to risk re-employing me and then they have to make me redundant when things go back to normal as I would be entitled to a number of years redundancy. They want something in B & W which shows if re-employed for Furlough they wouldn't have to pay me redundancy as I resigned  on my own accord before the pandemic hit.

sharpe106

Yes as in theory if you refuse to leave at the end it will cost them. 

Undervalued

sharpe106 said:

Yes as in theory if you refuse to leave at the end it will cost them. 

Exactly. Employers are being used as an extension of the benefits system and run the risk of being out of pocket if they get it in any way wrong. Plus they are at the very least advancing the money and waiting months to get it back. Other than as a pure gesture of goodwill to a former employee there is no incentive for the employer to do this.

LilElvis

sharpe106 said:

Yes as in theory if you refuse to leave at the end it will cost them. 

I would have thought that one of the biggest blocks on employers being prepared to put former employees back on the payroll in order to furlough them is that they would continue to accrue holiday which would either have to be paid out of the employer's own pocket on cessation of furlough/ employment or would be liable to top up the furlough payment to full pay if holiday were taken during furlough. That's quite a cost for helping someone out!

Mrsn

If they have already replaced your job then I can’t see how furlough would be applicable anyway as it’s designed to to protect roles that would otherwise be made redundant? I can see why they are reluctant to be honest, it’s very risky from their perspective.

sharpe106

LilElvis said:

I would have thought that one of the biggest blocks on employers being prepared to put former employees back on the payroll in order to furlough them is that they would continue to accrue holiday which would either have to be paid out of the employer's own pocket on cessation of furlough/ employment or would be liable to top up the furlough payment to full pay if holiday were taken during furlough. That's quite a cost for helping someone out!

There is that as well but if you are employing several people when it comes to making people redundant you can't just go oh that one. So as they are legally an employee again if they did in theory they could claim unfair dismissal. I doubt I only took them back on to claim a grant would be a legal defence. 

sliphi

Sarahee said:

I resigned from my job on 31st March but asked to be employed by my Employer to obtain Furlough, they have said no as said its not clear what employment rights I might have ref Redundancy as my old job has been filled.  Is there anything in Government Guidance regarding this I can give them to re-assure them? 

You resigned, presumably voluntarily.
You are not entitled to any redundancy payment. I'm sure your former employer will already be aware of this.
They would also be fully aware, I'm sure, how to rehire you on a temporary contract if they were so inclined so that you do not get redundancy in future.

Sounds like they just don't want you back, sorry.
Again, entirely the decision of that employer during this time of National Emergency,