Paul Burton, Head of Frettens’ specialist employment & HR team, answers your questions on the ‘new furlough scheme’ as well as queries surrounding working from home and remote monitoring.

What is the coronavirus job support scheme?

The current Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends on 31st October and the government had been under pressure to extend or replace it.

Many sectors are still struggling and dependent on the furlough scheme payments to retain their staff and avoid redundancies, and the governor of the Bank of England had urged the government to ‘stop and rethink’ it.

The coronavirus job support scheme (CJSS) is the new government scheme being introduced to assist employers in keeping employees in work, rather than make them redundant.

The chancellor announced that the furlough scheme will come to an end as planned on 31st October 2020. He said that he had “faced no harder decision than to end the furlough scheme” but that it was “fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that only exist in furlough.”

The government’s strategy now will be to protect viable jobs, and that is what the coronavirus job support scheme will do.

You can read Paul’s article on the announcement of what has been referred to as the ‘new furlough scheme’ here.

When will the Job Support Scheme start and how will it work?

The new coronavirus job support scheme will start on the 1st of November and will run for six months until the end of April 2021.

An employee will have to work for a minimum of 33% of their normal hours and be paid by their employer for this time.

Of the remaining non-working hours, up to the maximum 67%, will be split equally into thirds.

The government will pay the wages for one third, the employer for the second third and the employee will forego payment for the final third.

This means, in practice, an employee will receive a minimum of 77% of their normal wages, subject to a cap on the government contribution of £697.92 per month.

All employers with a UK bank account and UK PAYE schemes can claim the grant.  Employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 23 September 2020.

A breakdown of the details surrounding the scheme can be read here.

Working from home

The announcement of the CJSS followed a briefing from Boris Johnson in which he urged all workers to work from home where possible.

My colleague Chris Dobbs wrote an article recently outlining the need for a well-considered working from home policy, that you can read here.

Should all businesses have a Working From Home Policy?

Yes, absolutely. While there is no legal obligation to have a policy concerning working from home, any issues arising from employees working at home will be much easier to address if there is a policy in place. This also helps requests to be dealt with consistently and fairly.

If you not have a policy, we would strongly advise that one is drafted and implemented as soon as possible and ideally before any permanent homeworking arrangements are put into place.

Chris has also put together a useful 9-point guide to what needs to be considered or included.

The employment team at Frettens are able to offer an ‘oven-ready’ Working From Home Policy as it stands for £125 plus VAT.

Can an employer monitor employees working from home?

With recent surveys hinting that employees are more productive when working from home, it may not be necessary in many businesses to monitor employees remotely. In some circumstances, however, it may be.

Monitoring employees can be good business practice; it allows employers to keep an eye on productivity, performance and to ensure that its IT systems are being used appropriately and in accordance with company IT policies.

Open monitoring is preferable to covert surveillance and, in fact, covert surveillance should only be used in extreme circumstances and following a full impact statement.

Any monitoring should be carried out fairly and in the least intrusive way possible. Care should be taken where there is any risk of breaching data protection or where employees may be able to argue that they are being specifically targeted especially if it could seem discriminatory in nature.

Before embarking on any form of electronic monitoring of staff, we would strongly recommend you take legal advice on what your specific circumstances.

Frettens’ detailed article on remote monitoring can be read here.

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