How do you like to spend your Friday evenings?  If it's reviewing HMRC guidance then you’re in luck because the Furlough Guidance has just been updated.

The latest update is an important one.  It confirms that for furlough claims periods (a claim period being a minimum of 7 days) starting on or after 1 December 2020, the furloughed employee cannot be serving out a period of notice – either contract or statutory. 

Currently, for claims up to 1 December, an employee on statutory notice can be furloughed but the guidance is silent on employees serving contractual notice.

Without wishing to add any further doom and gloom, this appears to add a further complication to the question of re-hiring and re-furloughing dismissed employees because, presumably that contract will have to end with notice.  That may be contractual or statutory (and depending on the question of continuation of employment from the previous contract), and during that time, the employee could not be furloughed.  Add to that the word of The Employment Rights Act 1996 (Coronavirus, Calculation of a Week’s Pay) Regulations 2020, and you end up in a situation where the employer is on the hook for the notice pay – at the full pre-furlough rate.

Should you have any queries about the issues raised in this article, or on any employment related matter, please contact our expert Arvin Sandhu by email or on 01494 893 542.