Anyone aware of any means of 'shopping' a company where they are making the employees work but are claiming the furlough payments so reducing their employment costs to zero, the business trades as before and everybody who is playing fair is contributing to this employers income.
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Are they a client? If so, file a MLR report and tell them to get lost.
If they’re not a client, how did you find out?
You have lost your anon status so may wish to get this deleted.
I would refuse to do it and also file a MLR.
I would be blunt with them - tell them that you are not going to be party to such underhand behaviour and, if they insist, wish them luck in finding someone else to process their payroll for them.
As there is no portal yet and no money has been paid out, at this stage there is only an alleged intention to defraud. If down the line you think there would be evidence of this then shop them to HMRC. Don't take any risks though, such as photographing people at work in case it would be useful evidence later.
There is, as yet, no suspicion of money laundering to report as no benefit has been obtained. However making a dishonest claim would be covered by existing laws covering making a false representation (Fraud Act 2006, s2) or false accounting (Theft Act 1968, s17).
David
Government will retain the right to retrospectively audit all aspects of the scheme with scope to claw back fraudulent or erroneous claims.
.. but it goes without saying that you should have no part in it if they do go ahead. Even with self-isolating you may still end up sharing their cell!
Apart from obvious MLR if they do go ahead and claim the grant, what about the consequences of upsetting an employee.
Given the general advice is that this is discussed and agreed by both employer and employee one assume that the employee would have something on record, signed by both parties.
If the employer in the future upset said employee they are opening themselves up to all kinds of blackmail and the like.
Karma always comes back to bite.
The management of the company I work for appear to have seen this scheme as an opportunity to improve their chronic cashflow issues. People are on the furlough list but still working, or the furlough has been back-dated to when they started self-isolating, but again were still working. One well-paid 'employee' *cough* (director's spouse) has been put on furlough from the beginning of the month, even though it is only in the last two weeks that orders started dropping off.
It sickens me slightly when I know this scheme was primarily set up to help people like my daughter, who worked a zero-hours contract in the hospitality industry and has genuinely been furloughed.
I told them of my concerns and some changes were made but not enough. We shall see what the next few weeks brings. Meanwhile I'll be keeping a close eye on the job market!