Furlouged and short time work?

Bilco69

Hi,
My company wants to put me on furlough from may 4th to may 25th which im fine with, but theyve have said that if things pick up theyll invoke short time work rules and call me back to work thus canceling the furlough resulting in me only getting £29 per day I'll have been off work.
Can they do this ?
Thanks 

Jeremy535897

It depends on what your contract of employment, as amended, says.

Grumpy_chap

They have set the furlough to meet the minimum period, so it will cost the company if they cancel that part way through.
How do the short time work rules work in your company?
How do you calculate £29 per day if they cancel the furlough?  Surely, you have insufficient information to work that out right now.  If the company land a big order on 5th May and need you straight back in that will be different than a big order landing 20th May.
What type of business do you work for?  Are you able to make an informed estimate as to whether the furlough being cut short is likely?  Although the company are trying to keep their options open, you may be worrying unecessarily.

Bilco69

not sure how they calculated the £29. Thats what they told me id be paid for short time work.
just want to know where i stand if was called back to work part way through as i aggreed to furlough to help them out, if get called back then ill loose out. wouldnt be happy as im helping them out by taking the furlough.

Grumpy_chap

I can't see how you are helping them by taking furlough.  Surely, it is the other way round?

I assume the alternative to furlough was for them to either short-time layoff (with no pay) or permanent redundancy.

You could ask them where the £29 figure comes from as they won't have just made it up.

Remember the proper name of furlough is "coronavirus job retention scheme" and it is there to do what it says, i.e. retain jobs where they would have otherwise ended.  If you are called back into work, that must surely be a better thing as it means your job has been protected and the company is more secure for the future than if the company just has now work. 

The rules of CJRS is that a furlough period has to be 3 weeks minimum (4-25 May is 3 weeks) and the company then claims 80% or your salary (up to £2.5k/month), which they then pay to you.  This is only possible if you do no work for the company in that time.  If they land work and call you in earlier, that is a good thing, but it would mean that the company cannot claim the CJRS grant.

Maybe it is in that last case that the £29 per day would apply for not working?  

What is your employer like usually - i.e. good or bad?  If usually a good employer, then give them the benefit of the doubt that they will try to make this fair and protected the incomes of individuals as much as the company.  You did not say what the business of the company is, but if they get work can they manage when it has to be delivered? 

1. So, if they get a big order tomorrow, then you will be called straight back in but get only £29 for today (rather than today being unpaid layoff)
2. If they get a big order 20th May, they will probably try to manage the delivery time so that the furlough can be honoured and you do the work after 25th May.
3. The difficult thing would be that order landing slap bang in the middle and the customer demanding quick delivery.

We can assume that (1) above is unlikely as if the company thought that would happen, they would probably just not bother with furlough.  If (2) happens, that seems to be all good   How likely do you think (3) is?

Maybe the best thing is to make the best of the three weeks and expect the best to happen with regard to furlough and future return to work / business recovery.

Bilco69

i work in pcb manufaturing. Boss is doing my job CNC drills as he knows a little on the cnc machine (typical boss - little knowhow yet think he knows it all ). thing that worries me is everytime i have time off im getting phone calls on how to fix problems, so will be called back in when he cant cope with the work he thinks is easy