Furlough + Holidays

Dizzydan

Hi, 

I was just hoping to get a better understanding about furlough in relation to holiday pay.

I have been with my employer 5+ years on an annualised hours permanent contract. Before the second lockdown was announced I had worked over my hours, and had around 20 days holiday to take. The business normally closes for 2 weeks over Christmas and we are asked to save holidays for those dates so it's quite common for people to be off a large part of December.

With holidays + working extra hours I was due to finish on the 23rd November until January. I was instead put on furlough on the 6th of November and have been told I'm back as usual in January.

What happens to the holiday hours that are owed? The employer originally said we could carry 10 days holiday to next year, but now they are saying they will top up wages to 100% using holiday entitlement and we lose all remaining holidays for the year (which starts again in January). I have been paid monthly twice now, the first time I only received 80% and the second time it was made up to 100%. There was never any communication about their intent throughout.

Just wondering if they are allowed to do this? They have not honoured their agreement to top up wages in November and they used 5 days holiday pay to make 100% in December, but there is still 15 days worth of holiday they are just going to write off.

Any help or explanation would be much appreciated!

Jeremy535897

Employers can oblige employees to take holiday when furloughed. They are supposed to give proper notice (twice the length of holiday unless the employment contract says otherwise), but if they don't, the recourse is an employment tribunal (not realistic).

Most employers accept that if they oblige employees to take holiday while furloughed, they must top up wages to 100% (the correct analysis is much more complex, but no employers seem to have the appetite to pay anything than 100%).

The latest government guidance has highlighted that a claim under the CJRS for furloughed employees may not be made unless the reason for furlough is coronavirus. When a business shuts down for two weeks at Christmas every year, for example, and staff always take the time off as holiday, the business cannot furlough staff instead, because the shutting down of the business has nothing to do with coronavirus.