Coronavirus: Your workplace questions

We are advising against it
It is meant to be about job protection so I think HMRC will be taking a very close look at a busy Company

We have directed colleagues to the gov.uk website where they can claim tax relief although it does say if the homeworking is voluntary, it's not claimable. There is also a view amongst some I've spoken to that colleagues will be saving on ordinary commuting costs so in some cases, may offset any additional homeworking costs.

Thank you, that was my first thought but then I kept going back and forth so came to look for re-assurance. Much appreciated

Hi Lucy - I have similar questions, it seems that there is not yet clear guidance on this point with nothing stopping an EE from being furloughed and on annual leave at the same time. Annual leave requires EE's to be paid a week's pay for a week's leave. Annual leave may therefore need to be paid at the usual rate of a week's pay rather than the 80% but again not clear as to whether the business would be able to claim for 80% of this cost and only subsidise the 20% for the duration of the leave. As guidance is not clear, the business could end up with full liability for holiday days/weeks if the Government issues further guidance that the furlough grant may not be used to be allocated to leave during furlough. This is tricky and subject to further interpretation. In the case of potential for redundancy it seems as though either way the leave would need to be paid out at normal wage rate and if this is the case, may be a consideration to allow leave to be taken - but this would clearly need further guidance from an employment law specialist in my view. Do share if you have any solutions on this.

www.acas.org.uk/.../using-holiday

The relevant extracts are:

If an employee or worker is temporarily sent home because there’s no work and the employer intends to claim for their wages under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ('furloughed'), they can still request and take their holiday in the usual way. This includes bank holidays.

Employees and workers must get their usual pay in full, for any holidays they take….


Bank holidays are usually part of the legal minimum 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday. Employees and workers must get their usual pay for bank holidays.

Employees and workers may still be required to use a day’s paid holiday for bank holidays, including when they’re furloughed. If bank holidays are given on top of the 5.6 week’s paid holiday, employees and workers should check their contract or talk to their employer about taking this holiday.

If employees and workers usually work on bank holidays but are currently furloughed, they should check with their employer to see if they have to take holiday on that day or if they can take the time off at a later date.

If employees and workers cannot take bank holidays off due to coronavirus, they should use the holiday at a later date in their leave year.

If this is not possible, bank holidays can be included in the 4 weeks’ paid holiday that can be carried over. This holiday can be taken at any time over a 2-year period.

Hi Viv - I would also be interested in getting answers to this. We supply medical equipment and are extremely busy, with plenty of work for everyone to do. We have a few employees on 12 weeks shielding that we are currently paying contractual sick pay/SSP, however can we furlough instead?

Hi Miranda you can now furlough shielding employees yes.

Hi Peter my lawyer has said he would qualify?

We are a manufacturing company, still fully operational. One of our employees has just received an 'extremely vulnerable' letter from the NHS (dated 3rd April), and has produced a copy for us - all fine, however he has stated that he does not wish to follow the advice to shield and would like to continue to come into work! His role will not allow him to WFH so as a business we would be offering him full pay during his time at home - any thoughts? For his own protection can we insist? He's a great employee, we've made every adjustment we can in all areas of the business to allow social distancing and increased sanitising etc. His motivation seems to be that he thinks he will be incredibly bored at home.