Furlough payment withdrawn

AnnMcd

Hi ,
I was put on  furlough in March with my present employer . I have only been working there since January on a full time permanent contract . Corona hits , furloughed ..... I’ve signed several furlough agreements & the last one was for payments to be agreed up to the end of July . Received phone this week to tell me my contract is now terminated & because I’m under 2 yrs service no redundancy payment ( I know this is correct) , however I would be receiving June’s salary but not July . My question is if I signed an agreement to be furloughed till the end of July , can they refuse to pay me for July . I got no notice that my contract was to be terminated, when I asked could they not pay me for July I was told no due to other expenses, I pointed out that there are no NI OR Pension payments To be paid till August I was told no . Surly the furlough agreement I signed is a legal document ?? 

Grumpy_chap

Yes, they can do that.

They still need to pay you for the time you worked / on furlough.  

They  also need to give you notice of termination as required by your contract of employment.  It is likely that is only one week and, depending which day they rang you, they have probably met that week of notice required.

Your request about July is a reasonable one, but the employer does not need to agree.  You would still cost money as holiday would still accrue.

On which point, you should be paid in lieu of annual leave from when you started to leaving date.

You probably think this stinks, but the best thing to do is bite your tongue and respond along the lines of " I am really disappointed but understand in the circumstances.  I really enjoyed the short time I had at the company before the lockdown.  I hope you appreciated my work and would love to come back if circumstances change to support this.  In the meantime, I would be grateful if you could please provide me with a reference and I wish you all well for the future.  Thank you."

Jeremy535897

AnnMcd said:

Hi ,
I was put on  furlough in March with my present employer . I have only been working there since January on a full time permanent contract . Corona hits , furloughed ..... I’ve signed several furlough agreements & the last one was for payments to be agreed up to the end of July . Received phone this week to tell me my contract is now terminated & because I’m under 2 yrs service no redundancy payment ( I know this is correct) , however I would be receiving June’s salary but not July . My question is if I signed an agreement to be furloughed till the end of July , can they refuse to pay me for July . I got no notice that my contract was to be terminated, when I asked could they not pay me for July I was told no due to other expenses, I pointed out that there are no NI OR Pension payments To be paid till August I was told no . Surly the furlough agreement I signed is a legal document ?? 

It depends on the wording of the furlough agreement. If that guaranteed your employment to 31 July, there might be a case, but if it just said you would be furloughed till end July, it probably doesn't override the notice terms (one week statutory, but may be increased by your contract of employment).