Bank Holiday Pay whilst on unpaid leave of absence

epm-84

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

When Boris Johnson announced the 'lockdown' he didn't say we were entering a 'lockdown', he said from now on you will be only allowed to leave your homes for the following purposes - one of them being to do you job but only if you cannot do it from home.  That has reduced the number of people using public transport - some bus operators are claiming they've lost 85% of their normal passengers, so the chance of someone who can't work from home catching COVID-19, while travelling on a bus to work is significantly reduced as so few people are using the bus.

Given your husband works for a property maintenance company, how does he know if the work is 'essential' or not unless he visits the site?  With a lot of repair work one person going out to fix what sounds like a small non-urgent problem tomorrow, might prevent a whole team having to go out to fix an extremely urgent problem in a few weeks time.

epm-84

LilElvis said:

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

Because we need a functioning economy to pay for the weeks you spent on furlough watching Netflix at the State's expense. It's not rocket science.

No need to stereotype.  Most of the people on furlough want to return to work to return to being on 100% of their usual earnings.  Many (including myself) are also volunteering while being on furlough so another way of looking at is furlough money is helping support charities and the NHS by allowing people unable to work through no fault of their own to volunteer.  The charity I volunteer for supports carers so the more resource they have the less carers in the area rely on financial support through the welfare system.

The extra Netflix subscriptions may well be people on their full pay, who now work from home, meaning they have spare money and nothing to do in the evenings.

topb1rd77

Thanks for the info but I can honestly say I haven't done anything that I think either directly or indirectly relied on somebody doing a 'non-essential' job. I have stayed at home apart from a 1hr walk every other day since 25/03/2020, I have not had any takeaways as I am concerned of cross-contamination, I have only been food shopping once a week as I have very high risk, vunerable parents that rely on me. I have not been online shopping for anything as I am worried about the packaging and who has handled my goods. I wash all food before preparing and wipe over all my shopping before putting away, so I am trying to do as little as possible and to be as careful as much as I can. I am not, by any means, suggesting we cut down as food and supermarkets are essential.
I do appreciate you just advising what the law says but I am frustrated that all these rights and regulations seem to be in employers favour. 

LilElvis

epm-84 said:

LilElvis said:

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

Because we need a functioning economy to pay for the weeks you spent on furlough watching Netflix at the State's expense. It's not rocket science.

No need to stereotype.  Most of the people on furlough want to return to work to return to being on 100% of their usual earnings.  Many (including myself) are also volunteering while being on furlough so another way of looking at is furlough money is helping support charities and the NHS by allowing people unable to work through no fault of their own to volunteer.  The charity I volunteer for supports carers so the more resource they have the less carers in the area rely on financial support through the welfare system.

The extra Netflix subscriptions may well be people on their full pay, who now work from home, meaning they have spare money and nothing to do in the evenings.

Nice stereotyping of people working from home! Husband switched his computer on at 7.15 this morning and he's still sat in front of it 11 1/2 hours later with a half hour lunch break. He's worked every single day, including weekends and bank holidays for over five weeks - though "only" 3 or 4 hours a day at weekends. By the time we've eaten it'll probably be 9.30 before he sits down to watch TV.

sharpe106

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

Are you going to pay for that?

Fire_Fox

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

The current legislation HAS reduced the spread such that R<1 (person with COVID-19 infects less than one other person on average). The government has announced that we are passed the peak of new cases.

Your partner has the right to expect conditions 'on site' to be as safe as reasonably possible: the resident to remain at least two metres away/ in another room if small, windows opened ahead of the appointment, disposable gloves/ sanitiser/ hand wash facilities provided.

Requesting that windows are opened is not unprecedented: this has long been done when NHS, care or council employees have an appointment in the home of a smoker.

onwards&upwards

topb1rd77 said:

Thanks for the info but I can honestly say I haven't done anything that I think either directly or indirectly relied on somebody doing a 'non-essential' job.

You are currently posting on an Internet forum...

epm-84

LilElvis said:

epm-84 said:

LilElvis said:

topb1rd77 said:

So what is the point of lockdown then? If people can't work from home then they can still be made to go to work...that is not going to help the country stop spreading this evil disease!!! Non-essential work should be made to close down until given further instructions from the Government and employees should not be punished for putting their lives, and that of their families, at risk by unsympathetic employers.

Because we need a functioning economy to pay for the weeks you spent on furlough watching Netflix at the State's expense. It's not rocket science.

No need to stereotype.  Most of the people on furlough want to return to work to return to being on 100% of their usual earnings.  Many (including myself) are also volunteering while being on furlough so another way of looking at is furlough money is helping support charities and the NHS by allowing people unable to work through no fault of their own to volunteer.  The charity I volunteer for supports carers so the more resource they have the less carers in the area rely on financial support through the welfare system.

The extra Netflix subscriptions may well be people on their full pay, who now work from home, meaning they have spare money and nothing to do in the evenings.

Nice stereotyping of people working from home! Husband switched his computer on at 7.15 this morning and he's still sat in front of it 11 1/2 hours later with a half hour lunch break. He's worked every single day, including weekends and bank holidays for over five weeks - though "only" 3 or 4 hours a day at weekends. By the time we've eaten it'll probably be 9.30 before he sits down to watch TV.

I said the extra Netflix subscribers 'may be' people working from home, in response to a completely unfounded claim that people who are furloughed are sitting at home watching Netflix at the state's expense.  Most employers have told their employees not to work more than their usual contracted hours when working from home - that's a fact as they don't want to be paying overtime in the current circumstances.   I'm not stereotyping - I'm providing the side of the story you want to pretend doesn't exist.  

I think you should clarify exactly how many hours YOU personally did paid work in the past week and how many hours you personally watched streaming services.  Unless you personally worked 35 hours+ and didn't watch any streaming services then you're not in a position to complain about my post.

Presumably your husband is self-employed, if not his employer is breaking the law as working more than 12 days over the course of a fortnight is illegal for most employees and if he's working from home some of the exceptions to that law don't apply e.g. he can't be a seafarer working from home!