Furloughed working in a school

toshkininny

Hi, I and my colleagues work for an After School Club run by a school.  The club is not running currently and we have been furloughed. My letter states this is until 30th June.  The school has told parents that the After School Club is not available this term due to cross contamination,etc, so therefore I know we won't be working until at least September.  The school heavily relies on the profits of the club and will be out of pocket.  Will I still be furloughed until September, bearing in mind we get paid for the 6 weeks holiday period too, or is it possible I could be made redundant?  I know these are pie in the sky questions to answer but I'm just wondering whether I should start looking for another job now!  Especially when Matt Hancock has recently said he thinks schools may not be back to normal in September. 

yksi

None of us can possibly answer this other than saying (1) maybe and (2) maybe. Have you tried asking your employer?

epm-84

Do you usually work for the 6 weeks holiday or do you get 6 weeks holiday pay?  If it's the latter your employer would have to top-up any furlough period for that period as for holidays you'd be entitled to 100% holiday pay, not the 80% furlough pay.  For 6 weeks that would cost them quite a bit, considering you've been unable to work recently, so they might not be able to keep you on.

One thing you could propose, if they can't afford to keep you on short term, is that you take an unpaid leave of absence until the club can return.  That way if you find a new job you can just hand in your notice and if you don't then you can return to your existing job, without it affecting your length of service.

toshkininny

yksi said:

None of us can possibly answer this other than saying (1) maybe and (2) maybe. Have you tried asking your employer?

Hi they aren't very approachable to be honest, so thought I'd asked here first of all to get an idea.

toshkininny

epm-84 said:

Do you usually work for the 6 weeks holiday or do you get 6 weeks holiday pay?  If it's the latter your employer would have to top-up any furlough period for that period as for holidays you'd be entitled to 100% holiday pay, not the 80% furlough pay.  For 6 weeks that would cost them quite a bit, considering you've been unable to work recently, so they might not be able to keep you on.

One thing you could propose, if they can't afford to keep you on short term, is that you take an unpaid leave of absence until the club can return.  That way if you find a new job you can just hand in your notice and if you don't then you can return to your existing job, without it affecting your length of service.

Thanks, don't normally work the 6 weeks holiday.  Some good ideas, thanks.

yksi

The thing is, you're trying to get some certainty for your future (understandable) but you don't know what their bottom line is. If they go bust and just close their doors for good, and there's no money to pay you, all bets are off and we haven't any idea what preparations or protection they might have for that. If any. Your redundancy money might not be there, if you're even entitled to any. In your shoes I don't think I'd just wait and see, I'd be looking for another job and staying on furlough, and that way if/when the club reopens you can choose which job to keep.

epm-84

yksi said:

The thing is, you're trying to get some certainty for your future (understandable) but you don't know what their bottom line is. If they go bust and just close their doors for good, and there's no money to pay you, all bets are off and we haven't any idea what preparations or protection they might have for that. If any. Your redundancy money might not be there, if you're even entitled to any. In your shoes I don't think I'd just wait and see, I'd be looking for another job and staying on furlough, and that way if/when the club reopens you can choose which job to keep.

You can't choose whether or not you're furloughed - your employer decides that not you.  You also can't choose when you are made redundant - unless your employer offers voluntary redundancy.  If they go bust there is a government scheme to cover you for redundancy pay but you may not get the full amount you were expecting but there's absolutely nothing you can do to ensure you are made redundant before they may go bust, not after!

yksi

I took the assumption they are offering to keep the OP furloughed, I wasn't suggesting it was someone's right. They have to either conitnue to furlough, terminate or request you take leave (but the OP might find it a battle to get clarity on which one they're on, when an organisation isn't trading). There are all sorts of unknowns if the place just runs out of money and you're 100% right you can't bank on any certainty if the place hits the wall. That's my reason for choosing to stay furloughed if it's offered, because at least there's the hope of 80% of salary.

epm-84

yksi said:

I took the assumption they are offering to keep the OP furloughed

From the way I read the original post they are saying they are only furloughed until 30 June and asking what may happen given they have 6 weeks of paid leave over the summer (which won't be covered in full by the government's furlough scheme.)