Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that airlines do not pressurise their furloughed employees to work during the period in which they are furloughed.

The Government recognises the challenging times facing the aviation sector as a result of COVID-19. The aviation sector is important to the UK economy and will be able to draw upon the unprecedented package of measures announced by the Chancellor, including a Bank of England scheme for firms to raise capital, Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, financial support for employees and VAT deferrals.

The measures have been designed to ensure that companies of any size receive the help they need to get through this difficult time – airports, airlines and the wider supply chain.

The Government’s guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme, is clear that employees placed on furlough cannot undertake paid work for their employer.

We recognise the need to ensure that the scheme is sufficiently flexible to take account of the specific requirements of the civil aviation sector, including for example the ability to maintain a skeleton staff to continue critical operations, and to permit mandatory training and certification requirements. We believe that the guidance does provide this flexibility, for instance by not requiring a company’s entire workforce to be furloughed, by permitting employees to be furloughed multiple times - subject to a minimum furlough period of three consecutive weeks - and by making specific provision for training to be undertaken during furlough.