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07 Apr 2020

Policy & business

Last week's poll: has your employer 'furloughed' any workers?

Many engineers are pooling their resources to combat Covid-19 while others have been furloughed from the battle by employers in receipt of a government incentive to retain employees.

Furlough is a leave of absence designed to protect employees from redundancy. Introduced by chancellor Rishi Sunak, the scheme will see government pay 80 per cent of an employee’s salary up to £2500, with the employer paying the remainder at their discretion.

The Coronavirus job retention scheme is initially in place for three months and open to all UK employers that operate a PAYE system. Applicable to any type of UK organisation, the scheme is also open to full and part time employees, plus those on agency contracts or flexible/zero hour contracts.

Of the 2,600 people that took part in our weekly poll, 45 per said that a large number of employees at their company had been placed on furlough leave. A quarter of respondents said that furlough was currently applicable to a small number of employees, and 30 per cent reported that its business as usual at their company.

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