Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

(asked on 18th 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, what estimate he has made of the number of employees that are furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme that are being consulted on redundancy.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 23rd June 2020

The Department does not hold statistics on the number of employees that are furloughed who are being consulted for redundancies or those businesses using the job retention scheme that are planning or have already made employees redundant.

The legal position in relation to redundancy and dismissal remains the same whether or not an employee has been furloughed. Any redundancy process should be fair and reasonable with appropriate equalities considerations. Employees with the necessary qualifying service who believe that they have been unfairly selected for redundancy, or that the redundancy was unfair in some other way, may be able to complain to an employment tribunal.

As per the latest updates to the guidance for the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme, grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments. Please visit the gov.uk page for updates to the scheme: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

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