COVID-19 UK: JRS Updated Again Including Go-ahead For Furloughed Union Reps To Represent Employees

• Published date: 27 May 2020
• Author: Mr Charles Urquhart and Ruth Bonino
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Employee Benefits & Compensation, Redundancy/Layoff, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations, Employment and Workforce Wellbeing
• Law Firm: Clyde & Co

Further updates to the government's guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme were made on 30 April 2020 and 1 May 2020.

The key changes are as follows:

• Paving the way for union or non-union representatives to undertake collective redundancy consultation the guidance provides that they may undertake duties and activities for the purpose of individual or collective representation of employees or other workers while furloughed, so long as they do not provide services to or generate revenue for or on behalf of the employer. This also means union reps should be able to accompany employees to disciplinary hearings while furloughed.
• Employer can extend a period of furlough which has already started for any amount of time (so they don't have to bring them back and re-furlough) but the scheme end date (currently 30 June 2020) is the last day employers can claim for through the Scheme
• Company directors with an annual pay period are covered by the Scheme
• A new employer can claim under the Scheme in respect of employees of a previous business who TUPE transferred after 28 February 2020 (rather than 19 March 2020 as in previous version of the guidance)
• Where a group of companies have multiple PAYE schemes and there is a transfer of all employees from these schemes into a new consolidated PAYE scheme after 28 February 2020 (rather than 19 March 2020 as in the previous version of the guidance), the new scheme will be eligible to furlough those employees and claim the grants available under the Scheme
• Confirmation that grants under the Scheme are not state aid. The reason behind this addition to the guidance is to make clear that the Scheme shouldn't be subject to the EU controls on state aids. State aids are advantages given by the State to selective organisations and can potentially distort competition in the EU.
• For those on maternity or other forms of...