Employer selecting staff to furlough

LegacyUser

Hello,

Our department has been told that some (but not all) employees will be furloughed in the coming days.

We don't know how many people will be affected, we were just told that anyone being furloughed will be informed.

We're wondering can someone (as a permanent employee) be furloughed without their agreement if others in the same job are not being furloughed?

Also, how can an employer choose who to furlough if no one agrees to it? Does it have to be last in/first out etc?

We can't find any information on this. If anyone can provide an answer or has experienced this situation, we'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

Batgurl

This is a horrible situation to be in OP; the waiting.

From what I understand, there is not much in terms of “rules” or legislation for furlough as its such a new experience.

The business can furlough as many or as few as they need, depending on what their plan is. Are they cutting costs or going into hibernation mode?

They do not have to operate a last in, first out policy, and they don’t have to furlough from specific teams or grades.

Some companies are only furloughing staff that physically have no work to do as a result of this crash eg bar staff and events teams.

Other companies are furloughing everyone who is not completely business critical, instead only keeping the bare minimum skeletal staff to keep operating.

Plan for the worst (that you will be furloughed) but hope for the best (companies need to keep staff on for when the market picks up).

tiredblondie

Could be worse - my OH's employer told them to "decide among themselves" who would be furloughed - needless to say, they all refused and things are carrying on as they are for now!

dennyk

I imagine it would be treated the same way as selection for redundancy, where there's no specific rule about who can or must be selected or given preference, but the criteria used to select those who will be furloughed must be reasonable and fair, must not contradict any existing terms in employees' contracts, and must not be based on any sort of illegal discrimination. The fact that some permanent employees are placed on furlough and others aren't doesn't make the selection process unfair, but if the employer were to specifically target employees of a particular protected class or employees who had previously pushed back against illegal employment practices or something, that would be a problem.

Patd6

Unfortunately the strength of your friendship with the powers that be may go against you or with you in their decision. They can choose as they wish. If remaining staff are to be kept on on wage subsidy scheme, its worth noting that to get on this i believe you have to have been with organisation a certain period of time. This may influence their decisions. E. G. Can t get staff member on wage subsidy and hence furlough

Mrs OBumble

The only thing they cannot select on is the big-nine, or any proxy for them. They are:
• Gender (man or woman)
• Civil status (single, married, separated, divorced, etc.)
• Family status
• Sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual orientation)
• Religion (includes having no religious belief)
• Age
• Disability
• Race/colour/nationality/ethnic or national origins
• Membership of the traveller community.

(source: https://employmentrightsireland.com/equality-and-discrimination-in-the-workplace-in-ireland-an-overview/ before anyone starts giving out about binary gender bit)

Arguably last-on-first-off is a proxy for age, since younger people are more likely to be last on. But I don't know if anyone's made that argument legally.

Strumms

the ‘decide amongst yourself’ angle is such a fûcking cop out. Line employees are never going to be able to tell one another... ‘hey WE are saying YOU should be furloughed’..there would be war and it will lead to greater problems long term for the employer.

You’ll have the older lot with kids and mortgages adamant it should be everyone and anyone but them... they are generally (but not always) but generally the least flexible and least ‘team oriented’ employees in my experience.

LegacyUser

Thanks for all the replies.

It does seem there are no rules/guidelines around this.
Some temporary staff have been furloughed in other depts, we would be the first permanent employees affected.

The worst thing is the waiting. A lot of people are very stressed out right now.