Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

(asked on 17th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport on 3 June 2020, official report, column 847, that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, what steps the Government is taking to prevent employers from using that scheme to fund the wages of employees only for those employers to put the same staff on notice of redundancy during the furlough period.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 22nd June 2020

An employer can opt to make a worker redundant under certain conditions, if they deem this to be the best course of action to take for their business. The employee will maintain rights against unfair dismissal and to redundancy payments during the period of furlough. Any redundancy process should be fair and reasonable, with appropriate equalities considerations.

Pay during the redundancy notice period is based on the individual’s rights under their contract of employment and the statutory right to notice pay (under section 86 and the following sections of the Employment Rights Act 1996).

In these difficult times, we would not expect an employer to take advantage of CJRS, which has brought benefit to employers and employees alike, to make someone redundant on less favourable terms than they would otherwise have received. Please visit the Gov.uk page for updates and changes to the scheme at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

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