Furlough holidays and Bank Holidays

Tabletop0202

Hi
This is my first post but I am sorry that it has more than one question!

I hope someone maybe able to help. 
From the 1st April 2020 I have been on furlough on 80% wages as the company stated there was no work to keep me on. On the 1st April 2020 the company set on a new employee to do the exact same job role as myself even though I was put on furlough? They claimed there wasn't the work for me to do but set a new employee to do the same job role.
Can this be done?
Seems highly unlikely as the new employee will be on the same money as myself at the very least if not more. 

Also the bank Holidays are a day off for ourselves. 20 days standard holiday days plus the 8 Bank Holidays. For the furlough period we have only been paid the 80% wage for this day with no talk of the extra 20% pay for a bank holiday. We have not been offered a day in lieu for these Bank Holidays later in the year either.
I am right to think we should of been paid the extra 20% for each bank holiday or a day added onto our holiday days for each bank holiday that falls within the furlough?

Sorry for all the questions
Thanks for your help
Geoff

Jeremy535897

If your employer furloughs you and then hires a full time employee to do the exact same job as you, that is not within the CJRS, because the primary requirement now (it changed on 20 June) is that the employee's activities have to have been adversely affected by coronavirus. The issue will resolve itself, one way or another, as your employer has to bear an increasing proportion of the cost of furloughing you.

The rules that apply to holidays are complex. If your pay varies, you look back at an average of the wage for the previous 52 weeks, but (broadly speaking) ignoring weeks where you don't work. If you are a fixed rate employee, the basic rule is you look at the up to date wage (which could be the furlough rate), but overriding that is EU law that says, broadly speaking, that you should be no worse off on holiday than working, which is taken to mean that you should be paid your pre-furlough wage while on holiday. The trouble is that this technically applies to only 20 of the 28 days holiday you are entitled to as a statutory minimum. Most employers don't try to say that bank holidays are the excess 8 days to which EU law does not apply, and just pay full rate, but it is not a cast iron requirement. Government guidance dodges the issue. See https://www.gov.uk/guidance/holiday-entitlement-and-pay-during-coronavirus-covid-19