Help with Furlough

[krisdevlin83]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice for my wife. She has been furloughed through her work due to childcare. We have 3 children aged 10, 8 and 3 and don't have anyone to watch the children as my parents both work and her dad has cancer so her mum and dad are shielding due to the covid 19 requirements. I work shifts so cant always be here for the children and when not working i am doing training at home as its a new job and lots of training material to get through.

She received a phone call from her boss this morning stating that they are investigating her furlough as i posted on facebook that i was out a run on my motorbike. They have demanded a copy of my shift rota and what days i have been working since she has been furloughed. I am absolutely raging with this. Surely they have no right to ask for this information??? So what if i took a couple hours off to unwind and take a break from work and training??

My wife is absolutely distraught as she thinks she is going to get sacked. To make matters worse she is type 1 diabetic and her work are not following the distancing or PPE requirements set out by the UK government.

Anyone that has any advice or information on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[ULA]

Has your wife received anything officially from her company in regard to the investigation? If not is there any HR department at the company. If so I would suggest that she contacts them and explains the conversation that she had with her boss and find out whether there is in fact any investigation. If there is then she should ask for written communication of what the allegations are and what form the investigation is going to take.

It is best to find out whether or not something is happening. It may be "bluster" on the part of the manager.

Is the business still working as normal or do they have other people on furlough?

[krisdevlin83]

Hi Ula


Thank you very much for your reply. She hasn't had anything official and yes there is an HR department. I have already said to her she should email them so she is going to do that today. Thanks for the advice on what to ask them she is drafting an email as we speak.

The department she works in is still operating as normal but yes there are people who are furloughed for exact same reason as her, due to childcare issues. She has spoken to other girls that she works with and apparently they were not happy that i was away out on a day she could have been in working that is why her manager called yesterday.

To give you more context i have been struggling recently with my mental health and when things get on top of me i find getting away from the house for a couple of hours really helps me. Her work obviously are not aware of these problems and again i believe it is none of their business. In hindsight i maybe shouldn't have posted anything online but then why shouldn't I.

Thanks again and i will keep you posted with what HR say to her.

[ULA]

Thanks for the information and I appreciate that COVID has put a great deal of stress on families and individuals.

Just as information which may help understand where the company stance may be is that they can rotate staff in from furlough to work. So for example someone could be on furlough and so long as they have done 3 consecutive weeks on the scheme they can go back to work for 1 day or several days and then be put back on furlough again for a least a further period of 3 weeks.

If the company is still working normally but have staff off for various reasons COVID related such as self-isolating, childcare etc there may be operational issues from a resourcing perspective which may be a factor in the way they have approached this.

Anyway keep us posted.