Furlough pay help?!

lucyanne09

I work at a gym, and on the 21st March we were forced to close. As of the 1st April I was furloughed.
However, our pay is in arrears. So the work we did in March, was paid in April. So we worked the 1st March up until being forced to close. 
Is my company right to only paying me 80% of this pay, even though I had completed these hours?

Also, I'm contracted to 6 hours (although I've never done a basic month. always more) and then personal training and gym class pay is added on top of this uncontracted. Where do I stand with my pay going forward? 
They are currently telling me I will only be paid for my basic 6 hour contract.
 I was lead to believe if was your pay for that month last year or an average or the last 12 months.

daKlone

No, that's not right.

They should pay you full wages for any hours you have actually worked. CJRS is a scheme to pay your wages while you are not working, not to cover money you have already earnt.

It sounds like they are treating you as a salaried employee, whereas I think you ought to be treated as an employee whose pay varies. The calculation for this differs depending on how long you've been at the job.

Read the guidance here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-to-claim-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

And then speak to your employers. They may well just not understand the scheme and have made a genuine mistake.

Pricivius

There is a little more complexity to this.  The Direction confirms that pay used to calculate your furlough pay cannot include any amount that is conditional on any matter.  OP's pay above and beyond the 6 hours of contracted pay is conditional upon there being other work so arguably cannot be included in the calculations.  There is debate over this and I think it's not what the government intended, but unfortunately, it is what the Treasury Direction says.

Jeremy535897

Yes, this is a worrisome rule. The trouble is "conditional on any matter" could include your basic salary, because its payment is conditional on you turning up for work. If a wide interpretation was intentional, no zero hour contracts could ever qualify. There is some learned debate here:
https://jolyonmaugham.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/anonymisedcjrsopinion.pdf

daKlone

I get your point Pricivius, but I think it is a stretch to say that being paid for work is conditional on there being work....surely that applies at all times?

Martin's recent direct quote from the HMRC covers this I think:

"Payments the employer is obliged to make to the employee should be included in the reference salary. Variable payments that are specified in a contract and are always paid in reality, can be included within the reference salary."

Employers are definately obliged to pay for hours worked!

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/04/employed-help-coronavirus-furlough/#chink