Furlough Leave Change to terms of Employment?

OwlsZat

Hi,

My SO works fulltime in the UK and has recieved a letter from her employeer asking her to go on Furlough Leave and to "sign below to confirm your agreement to the change to your terms of employment". I'm wondering if someone could clarity the change of employement terms below.

"While we will endeavour to provide you with work, in the event of insufficient work being available, we are also asking you to agree that we will be entitled to place you either on (i) continued Furlough Leave, or (ii) on short time working or (iii) lay you off work without any pay except for statutory guarantee payments".

Is this asking her to accept that she can be put on further paid leave, part time/reduced salary or dismissed without any redundancy? I'd assume this is far from standard Furlough Leave procedure??

Thanks!

GM228

Redundancy payment in the UK is covered under Part XI of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It's a statutory payment, you can not contract out of the entitlement.

OwlsZat

GM228 wrote: »

Redundancy payment in the UK is covered under Part XI of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It's a statutory payment, you can not contract out of the entitlement.

So they are clarifying that there isn't any payment apart from the statuatory redundancy payment? That seems so odd. Surely, that doesnt need saying?

GM228

OwlsZat wrote: »

So they are clarifying that there isn't any payment apart from the statuatory redundancy payment? That seems so odd. Surely, that doesnt need saying?

Note what you stated:-

OwlsZat wrote: »

"While we will endeavour to provide you with work, in the event of insufficient work being available, we are also asking you to agree that we will be entitled to place you either on (i) continued Furlough Leave, or (ii) on short time working or (iii) lay you off work without any pay except for statutory guarantee payments".

Redundancy and lay off is not the same, statutory guarantee payments and redundancy payments are not the same.

Lay off and statutory guarantee payments (aka lay off pay) are temporary in nature. Redundancy and redundancy payments are based on a permanent termination of employment.

OwlsZat

Thanks GM228. Do ya think it's normal or acceptabe for a business to ask it's workers to accept a change of working terms?

GerardKeating

OwlsZat wrote: »

Thanks GM228. Do ya think it's normal or acceptabe for a business to ask it's workers to accept a change of working terms?

what's "normal or acceptabe" changed about 2/3 weeks ago, for obvious reasons.

OwlsZat

GerardKeating wrote: »

what's "normal or acceptabe" changed about 2/3 weeks ago, for obvious reasons.

I'm aware of the change. However, I didn't think this gave employeers the right to make their staff to amend previously agreed contracts. Seems a very self serving move.

Lenar3556

OwlsZat wrote: »

Hi,

My SO works fulltime in the UK and has recieved a letter from her employeer asking her to go on Furlough Leave and to "sign below to confirm your agreement to the change to your terms of employment". I'm wondering if someone could clarity the change of employement terms below.

"While we will endeavour to provide you with work, in the event of insufficient work being available, we are also asking you to agree that we will be entitled to place you either on (i) continued Furlough Leave, or (ii) on short time working or (iii) lay you off work without any pay except for statutory guarantee payments".

Is this asking her to accept that she can be put on further paid leave, part time/reduced salary or dismissed without any redundancy? I'd assume this is far from standard Furlough Leave procedure??

Thanks!

It would look to me to be an attempt to introduce a term to her employment facilitating temporary lay off & short time without/reduced pay where there is a current shortage of work.

Redundancy is a different, permanent termination of employment and subject to a more formal process, likely including payments to the employee. There is no word of this in what you have posted.

As to how reasonable it is that she be asked to agree to an open ended change of terms like this, I would suggest she take professional advice from someone familiar with all of the particulars before agreeing.

In the normal course of events, an employer does not have entitlement to place an employee on lay-off or short time (reduced hours) without the employees agreement, except where it is provided for in the employment contract or it is custom and practise in the particular industry.

These are however extraordinary times, and I would suggest that there should be some degree of latitude extended to both employers and employees in attempting to navigate the current period.

One point I will make is that the current situation is temporary, and an employer shouldn’t be using it as an opportune time to make permanent changes to contracts of employment. The UK have a particularly good set of supports to assist employers during this time.