How will the furlough scheme affect my workers?

After what seems like a lifetime ago when the UK was first put into lockdown, in March at the start of the pandemic, workers agreed with their employers to be temporarily furloughed with a view to return to work once the initial Covid-19 spike had passed. Fast forward around nine months later and the government has announced that the furlough scheme will AGAIN be extended and remain in place until the end of April 2021. The government will still be contributing 80% towards worker’s wages to offer some form of stability for business and employee as we head into the New Year. Fantastic news for some but are a percentage of workers developing a furlough fever? As the colder months set in - are some taking advantage of this system in order to put their feet up?

This for many business owners will be the difference between keeping workers employed rather than widespread redundancies being made. Being furloughed for such a long period of time however is naturally going to have some negative side effects in regard to business in the long run.

To put things into perspective those who have been furloughed since March 2020 may still remain on furlough until the end of 2021 – meaning they will have taken over a year out of work and ‘Off the tools’. For the construction industry that heavily relies on people power along with being alert when working in hazardous environments, alert when operating plant or heavy machinery – this could lead to dangerous situation when they return. Many of whom are lucky enough to have gone on a long holiday abroad and not driving for 2/3 weeks will know that the drive home from the airport feels a little odd. Imagine not operating heavy machinery for 12/13 months and then hopping back driving seat… this could be an issue! For workers with many years of experience under their belt returning to work shouldn’t be an issue, however younger or less experienced workers within the trades may struggle to get back to a decent level of safe productivity.

There will be some workers who will have benefitted from this situation – being furloughed from one job and legally being able to work elsewhere which remarkably will leave those particular workers potentially with surplus income compared to previous years of working.

There have been reports from business owners around the UK that their workers are asking to be furloughed as they seem happy to stay at home and get paid to do so. With infection rates still climbing in some areas - should workers be looked down on or demonised for not wanting to return to work? Is this a mindset of ‘Better-Safe-Than-Sorry’ or it is just abusing furlough scheme? Despite the government stating that trades can still continue to work despite tier restrictions there are different factors that business owners must consider before making judgement. Workers may share their homes with vulnerable people and arguably their only option is to isolate themselves from the rest of the public as much as possible to minimise risk of contamination. This leaves owners in a sticky situation as there will naturally be some workers who are happy to be furloughed and essentially get paid for doing nothing!

With hundreds of thousands of jobs set to disappear - if they have not already across the UK - the question has to be asked: Where do business owners draw the line?