Payment in Lieu of Notice

Dubrey1

Does anyone know if payment in lieu of notice is based on furlough pay or full pay please?  Thanks in advance for your help.

sharpe106

At the moment the government has only been clear that companies can’t use the job retention scheme for redundancy pay, they have not mentioned anything at all about notice pay. So until the government has stated this or it has been tested in court who knows. In theory notice pay is wages still. So I would think if you were still be furloughed they could pay notice period at 80% but if you were working it would need to be 100%. Your best bet is to accept what they offer you and if it gets tested in court at a later date claim then, as will probably cost more to seek professional advice then you would get anyway.  

Dubrey1

Thank you for your response.  I feared that might be the case.

sharpe106

What did you sign for furlough and for how long?

Dubrey1

Hello Sharpe106, sorry for delay.  The signed acknowledgement was "I accept the change in my employment status to that of furlough worker on a temporary basis.  In addition, I agree to a 20% reduction in wages as per the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.  However the letter went into greater detail.

sharpe106

Was there a review date?

Dubrey1

It states furloughed from "1st April" and "you will remain as a furloughed worker for as long as we are unable to provide you with work and are enrolled in the scheme."  I know that they have bumped my work to the Managers.  Also, during this time they only kept male staff in the office.

sharpe106

If the furlough was done fairly or not you may have an appeal but that is a separate issue.

With regards to the contract you signed, the scheme is carry on till October so I don't see why they can't keep you furloughed whilst you work your notice if they want. 

Dubrey1

I haven't had my consultation yet and have already been locked out of remote working so I know there is no chance of working my notice.  They have a glut of orders but have decided to cut jobs and have said the bank is making them reduce the wage bill.  This isn't strictly true as I know the history behind it.  Unfortunately I think the virus is going to get the blame for many thousands of people losing their jobs, when not all are genuine.  Thank you for your help.

sharpe106

The virus will get blamed for a lot, unfortunately one of the side effects of the job retention scheme is that some companies that have not really had a loss of work have used the scheme to save some money and are figuring out they are overstaffed as the work is still getting done. Some companies will also use it as an excuse to get rid of some staff they just don’t want for whatever reason.