Employers "fob off"

trooper775

As an agency worker who does qualify for the job retention Scheme and having asked my agency to put my name on the list to be furloughed, I have now been informed that the client company will not furlough agency staff.... because they cannot guarantee the can be furloughed for a minimum of 3 weeks and that they cannot guarantee that they will need to employ the worker after furlough. The client company is a multinational company.
The company has a number of sites/depots, some of which have been shut down and where staff worked on a regular basis...for years, doing as many hours works as those employed directly be the said client company.

sharpe106

It is up to them if they want to or not. The agency can furlough you if they want but it still costs them so most are not willing to. They also do not have the money to pay out and wait to claim it back. The client company would not be able to anyway unless they actually pay you. As most companies pay the agency x amount for a member of staff, so have no clue how much you actually get paid.

SXX

trooper775 said:

As an agency worker who does qualify for the job retention Scheme and having asked my agency to put my name on the list to be furloughed, I have now been informed that the client company will not furlough agency staff.... because they cannot guarantee the can be furloughed for a minimum of 3 weeks and that they cannot guarantee that they will need to employ the worker after furlough. The client company is a multinational company.
The company has a number of sites/depots, some of which have been shut down and where staff worked on a regular basis...for years, doing as many hours works as those employed directly be the said client company.

They could furlough you retrospectively every 3 weeks.  So for eg you are available for work for 3 weeks and if during those 3 weeks no work comes in, then they can claim furlough money for those 3 weeks and so on.  BTW, agencies only have to pay apprenticeship levy is their PAY bill is more than £3m per annum so unless your agency is a really big one, then chances are they will not have to contribute to any apprenticeships levy.

daKlone

It would be the agency (who are your employer) that would claim on the CJRS scheme for you, legally the client company cannot. So unless the client company were willing to fund your wages themselves (and not recover the money from the CJRS scheme) then what they want isn't relevant.

Unfortunately it does cost agencies money to furlough their employees, not to mention the impact on cashflow, and many are just not willing or able to cover that themselves.