Self isolation/Furlough

Tummy

Hi community I tried looking over the forums but nothing fits with my situation.
4 weeks ago people were sent home from work with symptoms of Covid 19, so the following day I phoned in work and told them I was going to stay off for a few days to make sure there was no other people with symptoms at work as I did not want to take the risk of catching the disease due to having congenital heart disease.
During these 4 days I was phoned and told not to come back into work people are being furloughed and letters would be sent out to sign.
After being paid sick pay and not receiving a letter I tried to contact Both HR numbers I had with no response I left voicemails to call me back but nothing, I tried phoning on nearly a daily basis.
3 weeks of trying to contact someone I received an email saying my consultants letter was not enough to self-isolate at which point I responded could you phone me please?
I received an email stating “can we discuss this in email I am working from home”. I replied with no not really I have been trying to contact you for 3 weeks with no reply yet you have contacted and phoned work colleagues of mine.
This escalated to a phone conference today with HR and a member of management who basically told me I was not eligible for furlough like the rest of my colleagues because I was Shielding for 12 weeks which I never once mentioned nor am I in the shielding group. I have not submitted any for of sick note to work.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you

kremlinbot

I can't offer you any advice really, but want to comment about corporate / office environments - It seems inevitable that any office tensions / personality clashes might come in to play with people able to use their power to choose whether or not to 'furlough' certain employees. People using plausible deniability for all sorts of things because of the virus, some people doing things in good faith, some people doing things in bad faith. I feel like this will tear a lot of offices apart at the seams and a lot of these tensions will come to the surface.

pff

Heya, my sympathies, sounds like a bit of a nightmare! I saw this on the MSE main site when trying to work out my own situation, maybe it will help you? Looks like you should be able to go on furlough from after your four days of sick leave. Maybe showing your employer the website and esp the quote from Treasury might help. Maybe also ask them to clarify what position you are in if they won't furlough you - i.e. are they laying you off?

From the 'Corona Virus Help for Employees' page on the MSE site:

• Can vulnerable people who’ve been told to self-isolate for 12 weeks be furloughed?

  Employers CAN furlough those who can't work due to shielding in line with health guidance. There's much confusion over this. Employers have discretion to chose to furlough someone via the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme, but some are wrongly turning down requests thinking they're not allowed.  
  
  Nothing in the guidance prevents furloughing in these cases, yet as employers are nervous, to help Martin tweeted the Chancellor for clarification, and got back an OFFICIAL statement via the Treasury:

  "Employees on sick leave or self-isolating should get statutory sick pay, but can be furloughed after this. Employees who are shielding in line with public health guidance can be placed on furlough."

Tummy

Thank you for your reply I will try and find this and forward it to work.

pff

Fingers crossed for you!

poppy12345

Do you have the NHS letter advising you to shield for 12 weeks? Either way, whether you're furloughed or not is entirely down to your employer. If they decide not to furlough you then there's nothing you can do.

LilElvis

poppy12345 said:

Do you have the NHS letter advising you to shield for 12 weeks? Either way, whether you're furloughed or not is entirely down to your employer. If they decide not to furlough you then there's nothing you can do.

It would appear that the OP muddied the waters himself as there is reference to him having submitted a letter from his consultant to his employer.

Tummy

poppy12345 said:

Do you have the NHS letter advising you to shield for 12 weeks? Either way, whether you're furloughed or not is entirely down to your employer. If they decide not to furlough you then there's nothing you can do.

Thank you for your reply
Thankfully i`m not in the shielding group I am only under transplant assessment. only after a transplant would i be in the shielding group.
Thanks to Pff I have looked further at the government advice and on there own website it states.

If your employee is self-isolating or on sick leave

If your employee is on sick leave or self-isolating as a result of Coronavirus, they’ll be able to get Statutory Sick Pay, subject to other eligibility conditions applying. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is not intended for short-term absences from work due to sickness, and there is a 3 week minimum furlough period.

Short term illness/ self-isolation should not be a consideration in deciding whether to furlough an employee. If, however, employers want to furlough employees for business reasons and they are currently off sick, they are eligible to do so, as with other employees. In these cases, the employee should no longer receive sick pay and would be classified as a furloughed employee.

Employers are also entitled to furlough employees who are being shielded or off on long-term sick leave. It is up to employers to decide whether to furlough these employees. You can claim back from both the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the SSP rebate scheme for the same employee but not for the same period of time. When an employee is on furlough, you can only reclaim expenditure through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and not the SSP rebate scheme. If a non-furloughed employee becomes ill, needs to self-isolate or be shielded, then you might qualify for the SSP rebate scheme, enabling you to claim up to two weeks of SSP per employee.

Mrsn

If they are currently paying you SSP they cannot furlough you until after the date that finishes that has always been made clear.

You may not class yourself as shielding but given your consultant has sent a letter to your employer it would appear that they have taken that as you shielding for 12 weeks.... accordingly this has triggered the current situation. 

What is clear as always is furlough is ALWAYS the employers discretion and if they choose not to use it (providing they have followed all their internal policies when selecting those to furlough) there really isn’t much that can be done to change that.

Tummy

Mrsn said:

If they are currently paying you SSP they cannot furlough you until after the date that finishes that has always been made clear.

You may not class yourself as shielding but given your consultant has sent a letter to your employer it would appear that they have taken that as you shielding for 12 weeks.... accordingly this has triggered the current situation. 

What is clear as always is furlough is ALWAYS the employers discretion and if they choose not to use it (providing they have followed all their internal policies when selecting those to furlough) there really isn’t much that can be done to change that.

Thank you for your reply.
You are totally correct it is at their discretion i have had a confirmation email from them stating they knew they could of choose to change me to furlough but decided not to. 
The company has not seen a letter from my consultant stating i have to stay off work nor have i issued them with a sick note.
They told me I require a letter from 111 or i wont be paid SSP so it appears as if they wont be giving me either.

calcotti

Mrsn said:

If they are currently paying you SSP they cannot furlough you until after the date that finishes that has always been made clear.

The latest guidance makes it less clear. As quoted by Tummy in the post before yours 

If, however, employers want to furlough employees for business reasons and they are currently off sick, they are eligible to do so, as with other employees. In these cases, the employee should no longer receive sick pay and would be classified as a furloughed employee.

The Treasury Guidance however does still suggest that someone on SSP cannot be furloughed. Now that people who are shielding are entitled to SSP the Treasury Guidance appears to prevent people who are shielding being furloughed but I don't think this is the government's intention.