Annual review while furloughed?

prada1girl

I’ve been furloughed since the beginning of April and my company have just asked me to drive into the office for my annual performance review. I just wondered if this allowed during furlough? Thanks in advance for your help 

Thrugelmir

You can refuse to attend. Though wouldn't help your future prospects with your employer. 
Nor does driving expose you to any great risk. 

Jeremy535897

Whether the employer breaches the furlough rules by calling you in for your appraisal is a matter for them, rather than you, although with flexible furlough there should not be an issue. You should be paid at full rate for attending.

epm-84

Jeremy535897 said:

Whether the employer breaches the furlough rules by calling you in for your appraisal is a matter for them, rather than you, although with flexible furlough there should not be an issue. You should be paid at full rate for attending.

I think where it may be an issue is if the employee faces a long drive to get to the office (which could be both time consuming and expensive), then they shouldn't be calling them in for a single meeting unless the employee is OK with it.

bradders1983

Dont see why it wouldnt be allowed, its part of personal development and doesnt generate income for the company.

By all means refuse and see where that gets you 🤷‍♂️

Diamandis

epm-84 said:

I think where it may be an issue is if the employee faces a long drive to get to the office (which could be both time consuming and expensive), then they shouldn't be calling them in for a single meeting unless the employee is OK with it.

They're still employed and it's reasonable to ask them to go into work. Time consuming and expensive is irrelevant. 

epm-84

bradders1983 said:

Dont see why it wouldnt be allowed, its part of personal development and doesnt generate income for the company.

Attending training courses while on furlough is permitted without your pay being topped up but only if 80% of your usual pay is above the minimum wage, otherwise it needs topping up.

Jeremy535897

epm-84 said:

bradders1983 said:

Dont see why it wouldnt be allowed, its part of personal development and doesnt generate income for the company.

Attending training courses while on furlough is permitted without your pay being topped up but only if 80% of your usual pay is above the minimum wage, otherwise it needs topping up.

A performance review is not training. Unfortunately the guidance is at odds with the underlying legislation. The guidance says:

"During hours which you record your employee as being on furlough, you cannot ask them to do any work for you that:

• makes money for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
• provides services for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation

Your employee can:

• take part in training
• volunteer for another employer or organisation
• work for another employer (if contractually allowed)"

Hence the comment by Bradders, but if that were the whole story, the "your employer can" bit would be prefaced by "For the avoidance of doubt". The legislation simply says at paragraph 10.1 that the employee can do no work for the employer. It then says at paragraph 36 (at great length) that training can be disregarded if it just improves the "general effectiveness" of the employee, and does not do either of the first two bullet points in the guidance above. As the legislation takes precedence, attending work for a performance review is not something that can be done while on furlough, because it is quite clearly "work", and it is quite clearly not "training"..

Thrugelmir

epm-84 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Whether the employer breaches the furlough rules by calling you in for your appraisal is a matter for them, rather than you, although with flexible furlough there should not be an issue. You should be paid at full rate for attending.

I think where it may be an issue is if the employee faces a long drive to get to the office (which could be both time consuming and expensive), then they shouldn't be calling them in for a single meeting unless the employee is OK with it.

Not having been near the office in 5 months. Which they commuted to on a daily basis pre lockdown. Attitude speaks volumes about a person and their value to the business. Hence a criteria in redundancy selection. Economic downturns aren't generally a good time to make yourself unwanted. 

Jonesy1977

As you are furloughed you have legally been temporarily been laid off, so I think it would be difficult to argue that you have to attend, however you may want to attend? I would be interested to know what the plans are, how the business is doing and how I can help on my return (or whether there will be a job to go back to) on that basis perhaps you should go in and review?

epm-84

Thrugelmir said:

epm-84 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

Whether the employer breaches the furlough rules by calling you in for your appraisal is a matter for them, rather than you, although with flexible furlough there should not be an issue. You should be paid at full rate for attending.

I think where it may be an issue is if the employee faces a long drive to get to the office (which could be both time consuming and expensive), then they shouldn't be calling them in for a single meeting unless the employee is OK with it.

Not having been near the office in 5 months. Which they commuted to on a daily basis pre lockdown. Attitude speaks volumes about a person and their value to the business. Hence a criteria in redundancy selection. Economic downturns aren't generally a good time to make yourself unwanted. 

That's a very ignorant response.  For simplicity your daily commute costs £30 and you usually earn £150 (net) per day, you might have decided it's worth the long commute because it's a good salary and better than what you can get locally and you've agreed a contract with your employer for a full time role.  You might have even rejected the employer's initial offer and negotiated a higher salary because the original offer would have been too low when taking commuting costs in to account.  On furlough (which remember is primarily there to benefit a business by retaining their employees for a later date) the employee would have agreed to get £120 per day on the basis that they don't have commute to work.  Unless the business is willing to pay the £30 shortfall for that day (after tax and NI) they would be being unreasonable by expecting them to travel in.  If the business agreed to pay the £30 shortfall and expected the employee to do a full day's shift but then the employee refused then that would be an attitude issue.