Employer COVID19 situation exploitation

[ITWORKER]

When the Coronavirus hit the company decided to take advantage of the 80% furlough scheme. Then they decided the remaining workforce will be reduced to 80% working. We initially started working 4 day weeks we received a letter stating this.* But due to the amount of work, management decided to make us work 5 days but each day would be shortened by an hour to make it 80% we DID NOT receive this in writing. We were told during a video meeting.*
We are killing ourselves trying to keep up with the workload as it increased massively with people and companies we support wanting to work from home. In the last 2 weeks we are seeing more and more offices going back to work but our company are insisting on keeping us on 80%. The explanation is 'The work is being done, so why should we put you back on 80%'* The directors have now said that the sales targets are not being met so until they are met then we will remain on 80%. But, the directors have furloughed the entire sales team!* The targets also seem to be massively inflated so we asked if we could see previous months targets to which they refused!

* I believe the company is exploiting the workers as they know that if we wanted to leave it would be extremely difficult due to the jobs market and the situation. In a recent meeting, the director sat and laughed at us all and said 'We're right at the back of the queue for offices going back to 100%'* They will not give us any indication on when we will return to 100% as they seem to want to drag it out as long as possible so they simply don't have to pay us.*

I spoke with the 1 person that works in HR and she said there is no information she can give me regarding the return to 100%. So I asked a director, I then received a reply basically saying how dare you come to me after asking HR!!

This has now directly affected my family life and I have now lost my home. I am not happy at all this is totally unfair what the company is doing to us. 1 lad in the team told me he is now unable to eat as he simply cannot afford to pay his bills!!

Is there anything that can be done?

[ITWORKER]

I've found this on the ACAS website**https://www.acas.org.uk/lay-offs-and-short-time-working

Our company did not go to short term working as a last resort. It was the first thing they did.*

Also, the criteria in which they are basing short term working on is not listed in the rules. We have far too much work to keep up with. My manager has now asked me to work overtime to keep up with the demand.*

The initial response from senior management about us remaining on 80% was there was not enough work!!!! We have proved this is not the case so now they have changed it to 'The sales targets are not being met'* *But the sales team are furloughed!!!!* We are support engineers and customer are complaining they are not getting the service they are paying for and that they are paying 100% of the support contract fees not 80%!!*

The short term working criteria does not say anything about putting employees on short term hours due to another department not meeting targets!!!

A colleague raised a grievance against the company to challenge this ridiculous decision but he was told to shut his mouth or leave!!! He told me that he has now basically painted a giant target on his back and is now being hounded by management putting him under an unbearable amount of pressure. He is having to work late into the night unpaid to simply keep up with the work that is being dumped on him!!

I know for a fact that when things go back to normal 99% of the staff are going to leave the company due to how we have been treated over the lat few months we are all absolutely dedicated to our work but the way the company is acting is absolutely disgusting!!*

Please can someone help or offer some advise on what we can do?

*

[ULA]

Is there anyway you can anonymise the letter you signed re short time work and post it up here please?

[ITWORKER]

Hi Ula,

We didn't sign a letter, they just sent us the below letter saying they are reducing our hours to 80% and that our pay will reflect this. A week later, our manager had a video meeting with us and said that he's decided to make us all work 5 days a week but reduce each day by an hour or so and 1 day of the week will be a half day. They said we'll go back to 100% working once the 'Situation has improved'. Since the start of the lockdown, the 'Situation' has massively improved and we are seeing many businesses re opening apart from us.

They also said in a company update meeting that there isn't enough work to justify us being 100%. We then proved to management that we are all nearly killing ourselves trying to keep up with the work. Many team members are working into the night unpaid to keep up. So, management then told us that sales targets are not being met so we can't go back to 100%. The entire sales team are furloughed!!! And, it looks like the sales targets for 1 month are exceedingly high. So even if the sales team were there the targets can never be met!


Letter:
'We have taken the decision to exercise the right to place some staff on short time working. As you are currently working full time, this means that with effect from 6th April 2020, you will be working four days per week, until further notice. Your pay will be adjusted to reflect this.
I would like to reassure you we are determined to re-open your place of work and return to full time hours once the situation has improved'
*

[ULA]

Does your existing contract give the company the right to put you on short time working? If there is nothing that you have signed previously that give the company the right to do this then they cannot place you on short time working without your agreement.*
My suggested course of action would be to raise a grievance, however it sounds like your colleague that has done this already just created a problem for themselves by doing so which is very unfortunate. I am not sure immediately what else I can suggest that you do although there is one possibility but i would need to go away and do some research which may take me a couple of days before I get back to you.*