Furlough leave

Superref83

I've been asked by my employer to return to work from furlough in a 'work from home capacity' can I decline given I have a 1 year old son and partner who is a teacher and still working? 

bradders1983

Well you can, yes. You may find yourself out of a job though. 

jayzor

You may be able to ask for unpaid leave. You have no entitlement to stay furloughed, it’s at company discretion and it appears there is now work for you to do, so not sure why the tax payer should pay your wages.

Mrsn

Since your partner is a key worker you are able to get childcare in a key worker capacity, though the from the 1st of June the childminders and nurseries will be available to all children again.

If there is work to be done now at this point and they have made the adjustment safety wise so you can do so at home. In the nicest possible way childcare issues aren’t you’re employers problem and I would think that declining their request will not do you any favours long term.

You can approach them for unpaid leave along the lines of I would love to be able to get back to normality etc but currently will struggle due to childcare but they don’t have to agree to that either.

Joeystrumpet

What did you do about childcare before being furloughed ?

bradders1983

Not as if your employer is asking you to go into the office, is it? Thousands of people are currently working from home and having to keep an eye on the kids as well. First world problems.

Potbellypig

bradders1983 said:

Not as if your employer is asking you to go into the office, is it? Thousands of people are currently working from home and having to keep an eye on the kids as well. First world problems.

It's another example of people not prepared to be flexible in these situations, and expecting these kind of things are black and white as per before. So many people are expecting the world to revolve around them. 

Jonesy1977

I don’t want to sound harsh but you do understand what you are asking here? Furlough is a necessity for employers many of whom face financial ruin and debt coming out of this. You have been laid off short term, but are being paid by your employer, they are able to claim government support to help them pay you.  They now have work for you to do at home, but it is not convenient for you? I hope people realise that a great many jobs will not exist soon and redundancy is unfortunately inevitable.....please support the companies that employ you as they battle to save jobs.

bradders1983

I work with 7 other people, all working from home. 3 of them have young kids. 

I suggest the OP, without wanting to sound rude, gets a grip.

epm-84

Potbellypig said:

bradders1983 said:

Not as if your employer is asking you to go into the office, is it? Thousands of people are currently working from home and having to keep an eye on the kids as well. First world problems.

It's another example of people not prepared to be flexible in these situations, and expecting these kind of things are black and white as per before. So many people are expecting the world to revolve around them. 

There isn't enough information given to draw that conclusion.  We don't know if the employer has done everything they can to ensure the employee can work from home.  Many employers are just saying employees should work from home without ensuring they have somewhere to work which meets H&S requirements.  OK in the first instance there wasn't time to do H&S assessments but now the PM has said those who can't work from home should return to their workplaces, it means if there isn't a safe, suitable place for you to work at home then your employer should be expected to reopen the workplace if they want to take you off furlough and get you back to work.

epm-84

bradders1983 said:

I work with 7 other people, all working from home. 3 of them have young kids. 
I suggest the OP, without wanting to sound rude, gets a grip.

That doesn't mean they are working productively from home.  A BBC report found that those working from home who have young children are typically only working at 80% of the capacity their childless colleagues are working at due to the high number of distractions.