Only off furlough if accept 20% pay cut

valueman1

My employer has offered to take me back from the furlough scheme but only if I accept a 20% pay cut until the 'business environment improves'.  This seems fairly open ended to me and would also mean my redundancy pay (3 months notice) would be 20% lower.  I have been with the company for 5 years.  Should I just take the hit and hope things will improve or tell them I need my full, contractual pay?

SpreadableToast

How easy would it be to find another job? Unfortunately, I suspect that if you insist on being paid in full that's that you'll end up having to do.

Grumpy_chap

I know one large employer that put all staff on 80% from 1st April, whether furloughed or not.  Seems wrong, but you are not alone.

Jonesy1977

There are many many employers forced to do this, the bottom line is that if you refuse then the likely outcome will be redundancy or worse the company goes bankrupt. 

valueman1

Perhaps I should be grateful for having a job to go back to and if things pick up I could always look around for another job then.

Jeremy535897

It is a question of negotiation. For example, you could raise the concern that if you were still to be made redundant, your redundancy pay would fall (although we don't yet have the details of the change on 30 July, it seems unlikely to help here). That just reminds them that redundancy could be quite expensive. I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask for some sort of time limit, or at least an objective test, so you have some certainty. After all, presumably it is the employer who gets to decide when the business environment improves.

valueman1

Jeremy535897 said:

It is a question of negotiation. For example, you could raise the concern that if you were still to be made redundant, your redundancy pay would fall (although we don't yet have the details of the change on 30 July, it seems unlikely to help here). That just reminds them that redundancy could be quite expensive. I don't think it would be unreasonable to ask for some sort of time limit, or at least an objective test, so you have some certainty. After all, presumably it is the employer who gets to decide when the business environment improves.

I thinks the change on 30 July refers to the statutory redundancy rather than the contractual one which applies in my case. I will politely raise these points although they have all the negotiating leverage at the moment.

Jeremy535897

Yes it does, and it also looks like it only relates to reductions in wage while on furlough. They can't make you accept a pay cut, and if they said they would fire you for not accepting it, that would be unfair dismissal. They don't hold all the cards. They might have difficulty in claiming your role was redundant.