Emma
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EmmaModeratorHi – employees are able to take holiday during furlough. This means that the employees will still be on furlough, but their pay will be paid at normal rate rather than the furlough rate. Employers should be taking a proportionate approach to the amount of holiday that employees take during furlough (e.g. as a rule of thumb, to take the holiday that accrues during the furlough period and not all of their annual entitlement) to avoid a mass build up of holiday which could make managing the workforce and demand when furlough ends difficult.
EmmaModeratorHi, I think your question is about furlough pay for those who are shielding, but let me know if I’ve misunderstood.
As you are probably aware, the government guidance states that employees on long term sick leave or who are shielding can also be furloughed.
The government’s coronavirus job retention scheme initially announced that under the scheme, eligible employers could receive pay for employees on “furlough” for all or part of the period 1 March to 30 May 2020. The scheme was then extended until 30 June, and has been further extended, with adjustments, through to end October 2020.
It is still the case that employees who are shielding may still be “furloughed” in accordance with the scheme unless they can work from home. The government has now created two categories of workers: “Clinically extremely vulnerable” and “Clinically vulnerable”.
The clinically extremely vulnerable category includes organ transplant recipients, people with certain cancers, those with severe respiratory conditions and pregnant women with significant heart disease and they will have received communication from the government or their doctors to shield.
The current guidance remains that they should stay at home and shield. It would not be appropriate to insist on such a worker returning to work and could lead to potential claims under health and safety legislation and discrimination.
The extremely clinically vulnerable should therefore work from home if possible, if that is not possible they can remain on furlough whilst the scheme is available.
Emma from CRSB Law
EmmaModeratorHi there, it’s Emma from Charles Russell Speechlys.
Employees can request to take holiday during furlough and employers can require employees to take accrued holiday during furlough, but in order not to undermine the health benefits of taking holiday the amount of holiday taken during furlough should be proportionate to what has achieved.
Employees should however be paid at their normal rate during holiday when on furlough. If your employer required you to take 5 days holiday during furlough, your furlough would not have been broken and you should have been paid normal pay for that holiday period.
EmmaModeratorHi, Emma from CRSB Law here.
Yes annual holiday continues to accrue during furlough in the normal way. Employers may want employees to take some holiday during furlough, but in order not to undermine the benefit of holiday, the amount of holiday that employees take should be proportionate to what is accruing (i.e. not six months worth of holiday during 6 weeks of furlough)
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