Employer Guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (version 7)

Published 24 abril 2020

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) opened on Monday. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has stated that applications for more than 2 million furloughed employees have been made so far. However, it appears that the CJRS is still evolving as the Government issued a further update to its Guidance last night, albeit the changes are more limited than we have seen in previous revisions and most clarify points we anticipated. Unfortunately the update does not address any of the unresolved question set out in our previous alert regarding the inconsistencies between the Treasury Direction and the HMRC Guidance documents.

The key changes are:

• Agreement to furlough – collective agreement: The guidance states that to be eligible for the grant employers must confirm in writing to their employee that they have been furloughed. It also states that as long as this is done in a way that is consistent with employment law, that consent is valid for the purposes of claiming the through the scheme. The updated Guidance now states that collective agreement between employer and Union will count as acceptable consent for those purposes. Given the continued discrepancy between the Guidance and the Treasury Direction we recommend that employers take specific advice on issues of consent.
• Tips and tronc payments: The Guidance setting out how to calculate 80% of your employee’s wages now confirms that Tronc payments (a specific method of distributing tips) should be excluded from the calculation of wages.
• Re- hiring employees: The previous guidance seemed to suggest that employers could only re-hire and furlough employees who were made redundant / stopped working after 28 February but prior to 19 March. This was widely considered to be an error. The updated Guidance clarifies that you can also rehire employees who were made redundant/ stopped working for you on or after 19 March as long as they were employed and on your PAYE payroll on or before 19 March. There is also a similar provision inserted for employees on fixed term contracts which expired on or after 28 February or 19 March but an RTI submission for the employee was notified to HMRC on or before those dates. Employees who started and ended the same contract between 28 Feb and 19 March will not be eligible for the Scheme.
• The Guidance now includes a useful eligibility table:

Given the deadline for the April payroll has now passed, we expect there to be fewer revisions but we will, of course, continue to keep you updated as to any further developments.

Link to updated Employer’s Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Link to updated Guidance on calculating you claim: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-to-claim-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme