From October - many employers will struggle to pay their staff. Are redundancies inevitable?

18-08-2020

Carrie-Ann Randall, Employment Lawyer at Lawson-West Solicitors, Market Harborough
crandall@lawson-west.co.uk

Employers will struggle to pay wages

Many employers are struggling to make ends meet now, but at the end of October the government will withdraw the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme (CJRS) cancelling flexible furlough contributions towards employee pay. When this happens, many employers will face a huge shortfall in their ability to pay wages.

Plan ahead for the autumn

Employers should start to plan now for the impact this will have.

Employers can use the furlough scheme until the end of October to receive government contributions towards employee pay, view our at-a-glance chart below.

From 1 September the government’s contribution incrementally reduces to 70% of wages.
From 1 October the government’s contribution incrementally reduces to 60% of wages
From 31 October the CJRS will cease.

Carrie-Ann adds:

“Employers need to start to plan ahead and consider what steps they need to make to their workforce to continue to be able to afford to pay employees from the end of October, when the flexible furlough scheme (CJRS) ends.

Workforce planning options might include:

discussing a reduction in hours or overtime
discussing a reduction in pay for a set period of time
extending holiday entitlement in exchange for less pay
reducing days worked
introducing a sabbatical or unpaid leave of absence; or
implementing redundancy options, voluntary or compulsory

At Lawson-West Solicitors, we can help you to manage and plan for all these options in the right way, avoiding legal problems and unfair dismissal claims that could arise in the future.”

3 most common employer redundancy mistakes

If you are in the process of making redundancies or considering them, you might like to know the 3 redundancy mistakes employers often make, see more here.

- - What steps will you take in your business this autumn?

Please find recent information available from the Government about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), furloughing employees and calculating wages and contributions here and click on the summary charge below to view key deadlines.

Claiming for staff wages - the Government's step-by-step guide to CJRS

Redundancy or Flexible Furlough? That is the Question - see Carrie-Ann's related article

View all

Talk to us

Express Contact Form

Salutation

Forename

Surname

Telephone

May we leave a message?

Name of opposition party*

*Please note this will be kept in strictest confidence and is required solely to ensure we do not have a conflict of interest according to SRA regulations. Information re other party (where applicable) is needed before we contact you. It will either be name and DOB of your ex-partner if it’s a family matter, or employer name if it’s an employment issue. The party *WILL NOT be contacted* by Lawson West.

Where did you hear about Lawson West?

I consent to receiving general information and updates from Lawson-West Solicitors

Tell us more about your concern, how can we help you?

The information we collect and store when you submit this form is covered by our Privacy Policy here and retention of cookies information here.

From October - many employers will struggle to pay their staff. Are redundancies inevitable?

Employers will struggle to pay wages

Plan ahead for the autumn

Carrie-Ann adds:“Employers need to start to plan ahead and consider what steps they need to make to their workforce to continue to be able to afford to pay employees from the end of October, when the flexible furlough scheme (CJRS) ends.

3 most common employer redundancy mistakes

What steps will you take in your business this autumn?

Contact Us

Request a Callback

Carrie-Ann adds:

“Employers need to start to plan ahead and consider what steps they need to make to their workforce to continue to be able to afford to pay employees from the end of October, when the flexible furlough scheme (CJRS) ends.