Notice Pay

Garethj167

My employer has advised as I have been given 6 weeks statutory notice plus one week in my contract (7 weeks in total) that during my notice period they will only be playing me at the 80% furlough rate. Does anyone know if that’s correct or shed any light. Thanks in advance 

Jeremy535897

They are wrong. Notice of no more than one week on top of the statutory minimum should be paid at the full rate. Where you are given notice prior to redundancy, new legislation today ensures that it is paid at full rate anyway:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-to-ensure-furloughed-employees-receive-full-redundancy-payments

Garethj167

Thanks for your reply I did go back to them and say this and this was there response? Still saying no? 

I can confirm that the information you were previously given by us remains correct. Alok Sharma's announcement relates to Statutory Redundancy Pay and the Statutory Notice Period.
Your Statutory Redundancy Pay has been calculated at 100%.
The Company provides an enhancement to the Statutory Notice Period and therefore your salary during your contractual notice period will remain at the 80% Furlough Leave rate. Alok Sharma confirmed in his announcement that the new law applies to basic statutory redundancy pay entitlements and does not impact contractual entitlements.

epm-84

Garethj167 said:

Thanks for your reply I did go back to them and say this and this was there response? Still saying no? 

I can confirm that the information you were previously given by us remains correct. Alok Sharma's announcement relates to Statutory Redundancy Pay and the Statutory Notice Period.
Your Statutory Redundancy Pay has been calculated at 100%.
The Company provides an enhancement to the Statutory Notice Period and therefore your salary during your contractual notice period will remain at the 80% Furlough Leave rate. Alok Sharma confirmed in his announcement that the new law applies to basic statutory redundancy pay entitlements and does not impact contractual entitlements.

The statutory redundancy notice periods are:

• at least one week’s notice if employed between one month and 2 years
• one week’s notice for each year if employed between 2 and 12 years
• 12 weeks’ notice if employed for 12 years or more

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/notice-periods

So if you've been there 6 full years then you should get 6 weeks statutory redundancy notice period.  If you've been there 3 years but your contract says 6 weeks notice then his announcement doesn't cover your entire redundancy notice period. 

Although, even in those circumstances I would argue
1. They can't give you less than 100% for 3 weeks and 80% for 3 weeks.
2. Their stance is only valid if the furlough agreement you signed is 'until further notice' or expires more than 6 weeks in the future.  If it had an expiry date of 31st July then there is no longer any agreement in place which states they can only pay you 80%.
3. If you were on full time furlough and there's no mention of part time furlough in the agreement then it means you have to remain on furlough until the end of the notice period, which means they can't ask you to undertake any work during your notice period.

Jeremy535897

As I said in my earlier post, under the old rules, if your notice period exceeds the statutory notice period by more than a week, the rules that say you get your "normal" (ie pre-furlough) rate don't apply.  This is set out in the guidance from ACAS:
https://www.acas.org.uk/dismissals/notice-periods-and-pay  This is what they are relying on, presumably.

The question then is what does the business secretary's statement mean? Statutory redundancy pay is based on the previous 12 weeks of wages, so could be diluted by furlough. The statement clarifies that this should not happen (although it does not address the situation where every employee, furloughed or otherwise, is asked to take a pay cut).

The statement does say that statutory notice pay must be paid at full rate, but why was it necessary to say this, as the law already provides for that? I had assumed it must apply to all notice pay prior to redundancy, but perhaps it applies just to the weeks that would have been paid under the statutory rules, as epm-84 suggests. It would seem sensible to review the actual legislation when published.