Take your mind back 12 months and ask yourself if you’d heard of the term…. Furlough....  

Furlough? What did you think it was? Some sort of antiquated, blunt farming tool perhaps?! Or a secret WWII weapon?!

Well according to my research it’s a Dutch military term for leave of absence deriving from the 18th century meaning “lay off or suspend temporarily” so initial thoughts were not too far off but to be honest I didn’t have a clue. Most of us hadn’t or couldn’t place it but boy did we all find out about it!

In the last 12 months we have variously been on it, worried by the threat of it, been jealous of others being granted it in the height of summer, been baffled by it, applied it and been equally baffled about how others applied it!

The Good….

Early winners in the pandemic were the supermarkets and Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda all received recognition by extending pay rises, discounts and time off for vulnerable staff.

Later in the year, in September, the BBC reported that UK Businesses had paid back £215m in Furlough. Some, such as John Lewis and Primark never claimed it while others, including Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Games Workshop paid it back and others including Halfords and our client Balfour Beatty have followed suit after stronger than expected year end results.

The Bad…..

Personnel Today reported that Victoria Beckham was lambasted for furloughing 30 staff from her fashion label, despite having her own personal fortune of close to £335m. 

Meanwhile some high profile football clubs came under scrutiny for furloughing staff with Newcastle United leading the charge with their non playing staff

- Hardly surprising given the press coverage owner Mike Ashely got over its application in his retail stores while the price of exercise equipment started to hike up as the nation exercised.

Last year’s champions Liverpool redeemed themselves by reversing their decision to furlough non-playing staff after a fierce reaction from their fans but there were also some cases that were downright ugly!

The Ugly…..

In October, the Guardian reported that employees were asked by their employer to work, despite being on furlough, and agreed for fear of being made redundant.

They quoted an employee in the museum industry in London who agreed to do a few days of work for her employer, while being unclear about the “legality” of it as saying “It’s tricky because I don’t want to say too much and am really anxious of the threat of redundancy every day.”

Others have outed employers for misuse of the scheme with the HMRC responding with the 2020 Finance Act offering a 90 day amnesty during which time an employer may notify HMRC of any mistaken or wrongful Furlough payments.

Most recently a restaurant by the name of Tomahawk Steakhouse (appropriate for a Western style blog I thought) asked furloughed employees to loan the firm part of their wages or face the sack according to a GMB spokesman speaking to the BBC.

Staff who refused were allegedly told their "suitability for the role (would) have to be reviewed" and while Tomahawk deny this, their approach announcing the proposal over a zoom call left many staff angry and upset.

The Future

One thing is clear, as the buffer of the Furlough Scheme comes to an end - a large number of businesses will be facing further hard times.

The potential spike in unemployment will not relieve the pressure on the public purse. There may be a large increase in the number of disgruntled employees and ex-employees looking to blow the whistle on what they consider to be fraudulent and inappropriate behaviour.

With this in mind, and to avoid workplace issues in managing your team back to work, we have developed a Back to Work Guide, containing a Template Letter announcing that Furlough is coming to an end for individual employees, download yours here today.

Inside the guide, you will also find an easy "Yes/No" graph to help you manage this process. It will empower you to decide with confidence who goes back into the workplace, how this happens and who gets extended furlough based on individual circumstances. 

The Global Outlook

To end on a positive note, whenever we even come close to mentioning “Furlough” to our international correspondents, they smile and say, “be thankful for the British welfare system”. The “true ugly” is not having a safety net at all.

If you want to discuss how to manage a return to work within your business click here to book in for a planning session where we can advise you on what to do, what to prioritise and what new policies you might need to either update or implement following the latest Government guidelines. It might well be a time to bring in different expertise in line with the current business climate.