Furlough pay correct?

ChrisssyP

Hi,as an employee who has not been furloughed yet but 50 of my co-workers have,what should we be getting paid  by our employer?

contracted to 38 hours but required to work overtime usually varies slightly but 50+ hours per week total and consistently so for the last 3 year at least.

for the last 4 weeks we have been on 38 hours due to less work

employer is currently paying furloughed workers normal hourly rate minus 20% x 38 hours, is this correct?

or should it be the average over the last tax year -20% and capped at £2500?

Chris

H20TGP

Hi Chris
I have the exact same situation so will look forward to your replies 

cheers 
Tom

superbigal

What to include when calculating wages

The amount you should use when calculating 80% of your employees’ wages is regular payments you are obliged to make, including:

• regular wages you pay to employees
• non-discretionary overtime
• non-discretionary fees
• non-discretionary commission payments
• piece rate payments

You cannot include the following when calculating wages:

• payments made at the discretion of the employer or a client - where the employer or client was under no contractual obligation to pay, including:
  • tips
  • discretionary bonuses
  • discretionary commission payments
• non-cash payments
• non-monetary benefits like benefits in kind (such as a company car) and salary sacrifice schemes (including pension contributions) that reduce an employees’ taxable pay

JReacher1

I think because in the last four weeks you have not worked any overtime the calculation is correct. 

It’s hard to see how your employer can claim your overtime was non discretionary when for the last four weeks you’ve not done it!

JReacher1

Actually I think I have that wrong. Looks like if your pay varies and you’ve been there a year you should get the higher of this:

Employees whose pay varies and were employed from 6 April 2019

If the employee has been employed continuously from the start of the 2019 to 2020 tax year, you can claim the highest of either:

• 80% of the same month’s wages from the previous year (up to a maximum of £2,500 a month)
• 80% of the average monthly wages for the 2019 to 2020 tax year (up to a maximum of £2,500 a month)

Grabs39

I do regular overtime, and I’m being paid 80% of my 2019/2020 average income, rather than my salary.  Hope that helps.

ChrisssyP

Thanks for the reply's, i think our employer has got this wrong and it should be 80% of last years average