On Friday further guidance on Furlough was published in the form of a Treasury Direction. This has legal force.
It confirms that in claiming employers are agreeing to have their details published together with an indication of the amount claimed. The only exception is where employers can show that their workforce would be exposed to serious risk of violence or intimidation.
It also confirms that the furlough agreement has to be in place prior to the relevant claim period. A furlough agreement that is already in place can be subsequently varied. There are some specific requirements for a valid furlough agreement – it has to be in writing, it has to specify the main terms and conditions upon which the employee does no work or works less than their normal hours and has to be incorporated into the employees’ contracts of employment either expressly or by implication.
Claims cannot be made for any day that an employee is in the contractual or statutory notice period between 01.12.2020 and 31.01.2021
Certain statutory payments cannot be claimed – these include maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental and parental bereavement pay.
