Wage increase & Flexible Furlough

[derekpayne]

Hi

I am currently on "flexible furlough" where I am working approx 20 hrs per week and being paid furlough for the remainder. I am on a zero hrs contract but would normally work between 40 & 50 hrs a week in a normal week, but as the work is not there I am only doing 20 approx hrs.

Our boss has told us that he would love to give us a pay increase but as we would not see any extra in our wage packet he is going to wait until furlough has finished.

Is he b*******g us or is he right?

He has also threatened to stop furlough for anyone who says that they will not do a job he wants us to do, can he do that?

I would appreciate any advice on this along with my work collegues.

Many thanks

[ULA]

Your employer is correct the salary level for being able to claim furlough must remain as that declared in the pre-covid period, therefore if he did increase your pay he would not be able to claim the 80% of the new salary to a maximum of £2,500 from the CJRS.

Being on a zero hours contract means that your employer is not obligated to provide you work, even if he has done so consistently in the past. Unfortunately if it is a reasonable request for an employer to make in terms of the task that he would like you to do and you unreasonalby refuse then, given your contractual siutation (however unfair that may seem), he could just stop calling you up to work.

I would however be intrigued to know how long you have been employed there? I presume the 40-50 hours per week were pre Covid in which case how long had you been consistently working those hours?

[derekpayne]

Thanks for your reply.

I have been employed for just over 5 years, it is a coach company we do a lot of work for schools and certain times of the year we are not very busy as the schools are closed etc, so the 40-50 hrs are usually around this time of year when the schools have thier activities etc, I anticipate August to be very quiet as there are normally foreign students here as well but they are not here because of Covid. Also usually September and January are usually quiet months too.

At the moment we have only got a handful of jobs coming in so most of us are going home in between the morning and afternoon school runs, any work that comes in is being shared out amoungst all of us.

Yes I know that an employee on a zero hrs contract is not obliged to be offered work, but also an employee is not obliged to accept any work offered as well, it works both ways.

[ULA]

Thanks for the understanding of your job which puts into context the type of contract.

Indeed as you say being on a zero hours contract is a two way obligation in terms of work being provided and your acceptance of that work when it is offered.

I presume that your furlough pay is currently the 80% of salary? If so then the only way that I can see of your employer giving extra pay at the moment would be using the provision of the furlough scheme to "top-up" part or all of the remaining 20% , if he things he can afford it. I appreciate this would not be a pay rise, but it may be a suggestion in case your employer was not aware he could "top-up" the furlough pay.

[derekpayne]

Many thanks for your help very informative.

Cheers

[derekpayne]

Hi,

I am having issues with my wages and my hrs that I submit for wages to be paid.

I do a weekly timesheet and submit the hrs that I work for payment, my company is saying that they will not pay for any hrs other than driving hrs as it could cause my furlough payments to stop as I am working too many hrs, I only "work" anywhere between 25 - 32 hrs weekly. What they are doing is cutting my hrs down so that they only pay me for driving and not for anything else, I have argued that any "work" should be paid at the hourly rate and the rest should be paid by the furlough scheme. I could be away from home all day (9.5) hrs but they are only paying for driving time not "on duty" time.

In the past they have asked me and others to work in the yard all day, but they havn't paid us the hourly rate but used the furlough scheme to pay us.

Is that legal or are they using the furlough system fraudulently?

Many thanks

[ULA]

On the points you rasie:

1. Duty time is any working time and not just driving time. So your employer should be paying you for all the time that you work.

2. In respect of furlough this can be claimed for the difference in hours that you have worked deducted from the "usual hours” you worked with the calculation for this being based on the higher of either:

• the average number of hours worked in the tax year 2019 to 2020 (the averaging method), or
• the corresponding calendar period in the tax year 2019 to 2020 (the calendar period method).

If you have worked more than in either of the above two methods of calculation then you would not be entitled to furlough, if you have worked less then the difference is what should be paid as furlough.


3. In regard to your comment "In the past they have asked me and others to work in the yard all day, but they havn't paid us the hourly rate but used the furlough scheme to pay us" The answer is no the furlough scheme cannot be used for this, if you are being paid furlough under the rules of the scheme you should not be working.

Hope that answers your questions.