Does reducing pay eliminate employees from JRS?

If employee has hours cut now as there is less work, will that stop them being furloughed in future?

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There is a phrase in the guidance that is making us scratch our heads as follows:

“If an employee is working, but on reduced hours, or for reduced pay, they will not be eligible for this scheme and you will have to continue paying the employee through your payroll and pay their salary subject to the terms of the employment contract you agreed.”

I had just taken this to mean that you couldn’t put someone on reduced hours and call the hours they were now not working a furlough – it would have to be completely off for at least three weeks, but a colleague is concerned that is means that once someone has had their hours/pay cut, they can’t be furloughed at all.

This makes a difference to us because ideally we would like the option to be able to put some people on furlough asap and pay them the grant we receive for them, but also reduce the pay (and hours) of those staying to 80%.  But would that mean that we then couldn’t send any of the people staying off on furlough, at the point that the work dried up even more for example, or different work that one of the currently furloughed people would be better doing has now come along so we’d prefer to ‘swap’ them.

Do we need to keep those staying on their full pay in order to be able to furlough them in future?

Thank you.

Replies (2)

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RLI
By lionofludesch
27th Mar 2020 19:42

No it means you can't furlough them if they're still working. They have to stop work completely.

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JCACE
By jcace
27th Mar 2020 23:07

Bear in mind that furloughed staff must remain so for at least three weeks (if you're thinking of rotating).

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