On furlough - duties carried out by somebody else

cazbym

Is it acceptable for other employees (who have not been furloughed) to carry out a furloughed employee's duties.  The furloughed employee's duties are unique to them within the company, i.e. there is no overlap.  Cover for the employer's work would normally be carried out by members of staff who have also been furloughed.

bradders1983

Yes of course it is.

Grumpy_chap

You might not like it, but it is probably acceptable. 

If there are 10 people in the company and a little bit of work for them all, say 1 day per week, the options are:

• Keep everyone on full time and pay them full wages, but they are only doing 1 days' work each week.  Probably unaffordable for the company
• Put everyone on one day per week short working and only pay them for one day per week each.  Probably not affordable for the staff.
• Make 8 staff redundant and the remaining 2 have to cover all tasks.
• Furlough 8 staff (and pay 80% or 100%) and keep 2 in full time who then have to cover every job.  Reasonable attempt to keep everyone balanced and secure for the long-term while being affordable for all in the short term

If you are in the last of the above positions, that is probably the best outcome.

sharpe106

If there was not enough work for everybody but still some work to do, so they furloughed only some of the staff, did you really expect them only to do part of the work?

hb2

OP, look at it from the other side of the equation - there is probably someone who is working and thinking 'Why should I be doing their job and mine while they sit at home getting 80% pay for doing nothing?'!

Dr_Crypto

Don't see why not unless there is some workplace agreement with a union or the like about cross-cover. 

jayzor

I’d be more worried about the fact if it’s easy enough for someone else still working to carry out that persons duty while they are furloughed, will there be a need for that position moving forward?

sharpe106

I think that is probably what the OP is worried about, they will be a lot of people in similar situations, ironically the job retention scheme may end up costing a lot of people jobs, companies figuring out they don't actually need all the people.

Semple

Did you request to be furloughed? I.e. Why were you picked to be furloughed over others who had to remain working?