- On 10 July 2020, government updated the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) guidance to reflect the changes for employers who plan to make a furloughed employee redundant.
- The Employers guidance has been amended to state the following:
“Where you must make redundancies, you should do so in accordance with the normal rules. This includes giving a notice period and consulting staff before a final decision is reached. You can continue to claim for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period, however grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.”
- The Employee guidance has also been updated to reflect this.
- This confirms that employers can continue to claim under the CJRS for a furloughed employee who is serving a statutory notice period.
- This indicates that employers should not be penalised for failing to retain an employee’s job after placing them on furlough, consequently making them redundant.
- Nevertheless, this still begs the question of what should happen if an employee’s contractual notice period entitlement is longer than their statutory notice period.
- Many contracts of employment will state a longer contractual notice entitlement than the statutory notice entitlement, which is one week per every year of service up to a maximum of 12 weeks, as stated in section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
- The changes to the guidance should not cause confusion where an employee’s contractual notice entitlement matches their statutory notice entitlement.
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https://www.aspirepartnership.co.uk/News/3473/covid-19-making-furloughed-employees-redundant
