Furlough

[Catfreak]

Good morning. I wonder if anyone can help please. I have been on furlough since 31 March and have been advised that I will continue to be so until the end of October. I have been receiving 80% of my salary (my employers did not "top up" the remaining 20%). During my furlough period I was on "annual leave" for 9 days obviously didn't go anywhere but it was leave that was booked back in February. Also during my furlough period there were 4 bank hols - am I right in thinking that I should have been paid holiday pay for both my leave and the bank hols thereby receiving 100% of my salary for those days? Or in the alternative my employers can agree (but don't have to) to carry over some or all of my leave to next year - but if that is the case then surely I am still entitled to the outstanding holiday pay for the bank hols? By the end of October I will have taken more "annual leave" again booked back in February & there will be another bank hol. Thank you, I look forward to your responses.

[bednobs]

https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/workers-on-temporary-leave-furlough

[bednobs]

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/holiday-entitlement-and-pay-during-coronavirus-covid-19

[fiction-factory]

I'm grateful to have received furlough pay for 5 months (mine ends 31 August) that I haven't thought about the bank holiday situation as it seems so trivial to me so I don't know the answer off teh top of my head.

In a year if your paid holiday entitlement is 22 days you add the paid bank hols onto that making it 30 in total. If the days in question on furlough were holidays or bank hols it should be paid at 100% and then they are deducted from the total to get holidays/bank hols remaining. If you were paid at 80% on any bank holidays you should be able to carry that day forwards. There can be further complications though depending on how your base pay for furlough was worked out- did they divide by 52 weeks or did they divide by working days excluding bank holidays/holidays.
First step is to ask your employer.
They may want to say "don't you think this has been complicated and expensive enough for us to administer ..."

[THECORBYLOON]

If you would have been on leave on the Bank Holidays you are entitled to your full wage and the same for the days you were off on annual leave.

“Holiday pay
The amount of pay that a worker receives for the holiday they take depends on the number of hours they work and how they are paid for those hours. The principle is that pay received by a worker while they are on holiday should reflect what they would have earned if they had been at work and working.”

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/holiday-entitlement-and-pay-during-coronavirus-covid-19

[Catfreak]

Thank you for your answers. I too am grateful to have been for "sitting at home" but am also mindful that my employers have also been paid by the Govt for me "sitting at home"! It may seem trivial by the end of October I will be "owed" more than half my leave entitlement for the year.

[fiction-factory]

This hasn't been a nil cost option to employers. Remember your employer will shortly have to pay employer's NI and pension contributions, and the admin/payroll costs have been significant. Employers generally have still had to pay fixed costs of the business and pay someone (maybe outsourcing) to do some of the work they weren't allowed to give to furloughed staff

[Catfreak]

Fiction Factory - I appreciate your answer. But the firm I work for is very small. Minimal overheads and still receiving some profit. I can assure you they are not out of pocket or if they are it wont be by much. Rent is very low. They dont pay business rates. Everyone's position is different and as I say I am grateful for being paid whilst at home - albeit being paid 80% of my salary - there are people in a much worse position than me - I am fully aware of that.

[alavahalf]

Surely you will have an agreement/contract with your employer regarding unused annual leave. It could be use it or lose it.. Or maybe you could be allowed to carry it over until the next year. When I left my last employer after long term sick leave, my annual leave was unused for 2 years.. I got 66 days holiday pay. But not all employers would be happy to do that.