Enforced holiday used to reduce notice period after being laid off

autoeng68

Hi, 
I'm a contractor and I've been laid off from a major UK company due to Coronavirus. I should get 4 weeks notice and therefore 4 weeks pay regardless if they ask me to work that period or not. However the company has forced all employees to take the Easter week as holiday, as my final week falls in this period they are refusing to pay me for this week, therefore I am only getting 3 weeks pay not 4. Are they entitled to do this? Also as I work through my own limited company, to get any sort of support I need to furlough myself and claim the 80% of my directors salary from the government. Originally I was going to do this starting from the week after the easter week, if i'm not being paid for the Easter week, can I now claim for this week as well? Would HMRC question this? and how would I prove that they were not paying me for that period.

Jeremy535897

If there is a contract between your limited company and the contractor, they are obliged to make payments according to its terms. The fact that they are doing something on holidays for their own employees is irrelevant.

You should ask your accountant about furloughing yourself. So long as you do nothing for the company, other than the statutory duties of a director, you can be furloughed. The furlough can be backdated to include the Easter week if you were doing no work for your company in that week. There is some debate as to whether a director can run payroll and make a claim under CJRS while on furlough, but ask your accountant.

autoeng68

Thanks for that, I work through an agency and have a contract to supply services to the client (the Major company). My Contract is with the agency and there is no mention that i need to take the clients holidays (except bank holidays). The contract does mention a total amount of hours that i can work for in a year (this assumes that i need to take off the equivalent of 30 days holiday a year) and states that i can not work over this amount in a year without their consent, but is not specific about when that holiday has to be taken. It also clearly states the termination period as 4 weeks.