Furlough

Minnie6868

If an employer has furloughed a large number of staff, brought some back in on flexi-furlough, can they recruit new staff with the same existing skills to do the same job?

MattMattMattUK

Minnie6868 said:

If an employer has furloughed a large number of staff, brought some back in on flexi-furlough, can they recruit new staff with the same existing skills to do the same job?

Yes.     

Jeremy535897

There is no specific rule to stop them, but it doesn't really make much sense to do this, as the furloughed employees have some cost to the business, and it may question the validity of any CJRS claims.

MattMattMattUK

Jeremy535897 said:

There is no specific rule to stop them, but it doesn't really make much sense to do this, as the furloughed employees have some cost to the business, and it may question the validity of any CJRS claims.

One of my customers have done it, primarily because it allows them to retain the experienced staff and train up a bunch of new staff ready for everything going back to normal when the restrictions are finally lifted, when they will need increased staffing levels. This gets around then issue of them having to train a lot of new staff, at a full cost to themselves, once operating restrictions are fully lifted. I do not think it sits within the spirit of the scheme, but it does seem to sit within the rules.

Thrugelmir

Minnie6868 said:

If an employer has furloughed a large number of staff, brought some back in on flexi-furlough, can they recruit new staff with the same existing skills to do the same job?

There's no logic in a company incurring costs in increasing it's headcount unless there's a justifiable business case. With a large number of employees there's normally a frequent turnover with employees departing for a variety of reasons. Takes time to train and integrate new staff.