At the end of last week, an email was sent to all employees at my place of work, detailing their policies in relation to the governments 'unprecedented' scheme of economic support to avoid mass redundancies in the UK.
Under the Scheme, employers can apply for HMRC to reimburse 80% of the salaries of employees who have been ‘furloughed’ rather than made redundant due to the pandemic (up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee per month for an initial three-month period).
Although this cap doesn't concern me as I don't earn enough, my company has also chose to waiver this and top-up salaries that fall below. Being 'furloughed' also has no effect on holiday allowance, and pension contributions (at the reduced %) are still made by the employer where applicable.
I read through the email and attached guide carefully over the weekend, and wondered how keen the company was to 'push' some employees onto the scheme, bearing in mind that output is likely to be lower, and the wage bill being one of the largest overheads.
This morning we had our daily Skype meeting and following the on-going tasks discussion, the IT director stepped in to mention the email and offer himself up for conversations with team members if they wished to discuss further. It sounded to me that the company was quite keen to Furlough a percentage of the workforce, certainly more keen that having to make staff redundant.
Following the call I sent him a message asking for a chat, but before I mention what was said....
My status is that I have completed just four months for this employer, and I am still on the probation period. The work relating to my role, prior to coronavirus, had started to arrive but in recent weeks it has been all hands to the pump, setting up 100's of staff members to work remotely. I'm the newest member of the team, bar a graduate on peanuts, and so...
When he answered the call I explained this to him. I, being new to the team and currently performing duties outside job specification (on a higher grade/pay than others), but still wishing to be employed and grateful for being so! - One of the 'risks' I had thought of was that in even putting half your hat in the ring would imply you weren't keen to work, or interested in the role.
Anyway, he appreciated that I'd opened the dialogue, and was very clear in that nobody's job was at risk, especially with Furlough as an option.
The company is now going to gather up some numbers - those who have put themselves forward (my name is half on the list as per the call), against how many they would like to be furloughed, and come back to staff, a presume, quite quickly.
So my questions are, would you have done what I did or kept your head down?
And, could you get by on 80% pay for 2/3/X months, being fairly confident your job was there where this bloody thing is over?
I suspect that we are quite fortunate to have this as an option in the UK - Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, are among other countries to adopt similar, but it's not the case all over....
Cheers
Asher