Won't Furlough

andrew5

My company has first of all refused to pay my bonus that I earned in March, but on top of that they have asked if I would like to go back to work and no longer work from home.... If I don't go back under my own free will they will not Furlough me they will put me on non paid sabbatical instead!
So really I don't have a choice if I want to get paid, this doesn't feel right to me, any suggestions?

poppy12345

Yes it sounds right to me and i don't know why you think otherwise. If work is available, whether it's from home or not then you must go in otherwise you won't get paid. If you're furloughed you can't do any work for the employer than furloughs you.

Can't answer the question about the bonus though.

daKlone

Have they refused to pay your bonus ever, or have postponed paying it? If they are saying the former, perhaps suggest the latter?

In terms of going back to work, I don't see you have any practical option I'm afraid.

I know it's a crappy situation, but you're much more likely to get results if you can open a calm dialogue and find a compromise then relying on any legal enforcement...which usually takes weeks, but in the current climate might take months.

Undervalued

No company is obliged to furlough staff if they choose not to. 

Bonuses are normally "discretionary" and the legal interpretation of discretion is really quite wide, unless it is so unreasonable as to be perverse.

Are they claiming that your job cannot be satisfactorily done from home? If it can then you should be allowed to work from home.

However, if it can't then they can require you to come to work and dismiss you if you refuse. Allowing unpaid leave in such circumstances is actually more than is legally required. They could require you to take any annual leave you have accrued, subject only to giving notice of twice the length of the leave.

How long have you been employed?

Jeremy535897

If you are contractually entitled to the bonus you earned in March, they are obliged to pay it to you. From your use of the word "earned" I suspect this is more likely to be the case than the possibility that the bonus is discretionary. I can't imagine an employer offering a discretionary bonus when having to furlough people.

Undervalued

Jeremy535897 said:

If you are contractually entitled to the bonus you earned in March, they are obliged to pay it to you. From your use of the word "earned" I suspect this is more likely to be the case than the possibility that the bonus is discretionary. I can't imagine an employer offering a discretionary bonus when having to furlough people.

I agree with your first sentence of course. However, not the second! It could be a hard and fast contractual entitlement, although these days the word "discretionary" is usually slotted in somewhere - as indeed it generally is for any company sick pay! 

Thrugelmir

While you may earnt the bonus. Your employer will be wishing to conserve cash at the current time. These are challenging times for companies. Retaining your job should be your your top concern. Employers will learn a lot about the people they employ during this crisis. Good management has a focus on staff retention. 

Jeremy535897

Yes, it is a very difficult area. The CJRS is shining a light on a lot of, shall we say, interesting employment pay structures, from the dubious (using tronc to pay management salaries in part so as to avoid NIC) to the common (using bonuses and commission structures to incentivise, but starting from an unrealistic base). I remember when a bonus was just that: the employer had had a good year, and kindly shared some of it with his employees, with no contractual obligation whatsoever. I believe this is what is meant by a non-compulsory or "discretionary" bonus, hence my observation that they are unlikely to be paid when the employer is also furloughing staff because there is no work for them.