In this ever-changing world, we employment lawyers are used to legislative and policy change affecting our world. But surely never to the extent currently seen. Even before the Government has issued any meaningful guidance surrounding the Job Support Scheme due to come into play in just over a week, yesterday it drastically changed the parameters of the scheme.
Previously, in order to benefit from the scheme, employers had to have its employees working at least 33% of their normal hours. That figure has now been reduced to 20%. And whereas the employer was previously obliged to pay for a third of the unworked hours too, that amount has been slashed to 5%.
Under these changes, employers will be much closer to paying normal pay rates for hours worked as opposed to paying for nothing. Will this encourage employers to retain employees it would otherwise be making redundant?
If you have any questions about these changes or about the ongoing challenges of lockdown, why not sign up for our Employment Law Update webinar on Tuesday where we will be discussing redundancy in more detail. For more information or to book you place, click here.
If you have any questions on any of the issues mentioned in the above article, please contact Alan Sutherland.