Husbands on furlough and employer has emailed asking him to take 2 weeks holiday.

xcharlie87

Hi, my husband works in a non essential shop. His employer has emailed him today asking him while on furlough to take 2 weeks annual leave starting 15th June ending 28th June. The employer doesn’t state when the shop will re open. My husband needs to reply soon to confirm if he will do it. It just seems silly that he’s already on furlough and has been since March to be asked to take holidays. Is it even legal to take holidays during furlough??

thanks 

LilElvis

It's totally legal and something many employers are doing. He will be entitled to full pay for the period he is on holiday - his employer will have to top the furlough payment up. The employer isn't giving enough notice to force your husband to take the holiday without his agreement, but only he knows what the ramifications may be if he refuses.

[Deleted User]

Yes it is fully legal to take holiday whilst on furlough, although the pay must be made up to 100% for that period. 
It makes sense otherwise companies will have to deal with people having large amounts of holiday in the latter part of the year. They can also have people take holiday now and it will only cost them the 20% top up, if they pay someone holiday once they have returned to work they will have to pay 100%.
Technically they have not given him enough notice for that holiday as you are required to be notified two days ahead for each days holiday (eg 10 days holiday, you must be given 20 days warning), however I suspect that is why he is being asked if he will, rather than informed it is compulsory. Note that whilst not compulsory, not taking the holiday will probably be seen as not supporting the company and those people will be top of the redundancy list when the inevitable happens. 

Grumpy_chap

What type of shop does your husband work in?  I understood that most retail would be allowed to re-open from 15th June, so it would make more sense for your husband to take leave now and be available when the shop is open again.  It is certainly worth asking (in a positive "I'm really looking forward to coming back to serve our wonderful, lovely customers" sort of way) when the shop is reopening and saying he hopes it is as soon as possible.  Your husband could then offer to take the holiday between now and 15th June.  Your husband could also offer to help rearrange the shop to make it COVID-19 compliant.

xcharlie87

The shop wasn’t doing great before covid 19. Some days they made minus money ( no actual sales but had people returning stuff for refunds)   He’s been on 80% pay as employer hasn’t topped up the 20%like some have. we’ve managed on furlough pay so holiday pay doesn’t matter to us. To be honest I don’t think it will even open back up as there allowed to from 15th of June and so far no communication on when and how they will manage the ppe situation. There’s only 6 of them in the whole place 

sharpe106

I would start looking elsewhere for another job as does not look promising. Although with regards to the holiday yes he has not given enough notice but he can easily give notice for 1 week now and then wait a few days and give notice for the next week so not really worth the hassle. You will still be in the same place. 

xcharlie87

He was applying before covid and  is on the short list for a couple of places but they’ve halted recruitment at the minute 

sharpe106

Hopefully something will become of that, your best thing to do then is probably not to burn your bridges with his current employer and accept the holidays as in practice they can anyway with a bit of creative work and try to remain furloughed as long as possible. 

Grumpy_chap

xcharlie87 said:

The shop wasn’t doing great before covid 19. Some days they made minus money ( no actual sales but had people returning stuff for refunds)   

You don't say what type of retail this is.  I could imagine that in some sectors, it is not unusual to have 'minus-days'.  For example, clothing purchases before Christmas refunded in the New Year.  OR, DIY products people over-buy on Friday and take back the excess on Monday.  Lots of businesses operate to extreme profiles.

Jeremy535897

Martin asked an employment lawyer this tonight. He asked do employers just have to give double the holiday as notice (4 weeks' notice for 2 weeks' holiday). Employment lawyer's response is we don't know whether you can be made to take holiday while furloughed, but "take it on the chin", otherwise there probably won't be a job because the employer won't survive.

xcharlie87

It’s an interior design shop, so it sells lights, soft furnishings ect