‘Flexible’ Furlough | The ‘HR’ admin

From 1st July, salon owners can bring back employees on a part-time basis and still claim the furlough grant for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – called CJRS v2.

Here we look at the ‘HR’ admin salon owners need to comply with:

Get it in writing

The salon owner needs each employee’s agreement to come back on a part-time basis and must confirm the arrangement in writing.

The new guidance says a “new” written agreement is needed.

Tax Journal says that:

“It’s not entirely clear if a letter amending an existing furlough agreement will comply or whether a completely new furlough agreement is required. The safest approach is to issue a new furlough agreement which sets out all the terms of flexible furlough.”

Can you change how much part-time they do later on?

Yes you can, since no minimum furlough period is required (under CJRS v1 it had to be a minimum of 3 weeks).

Tax Journal says that:

“The employer can enter into a flexible furlough arrangement with an employee more than once.
However, it’s likely to be administrative cumbersome as the employer would need to issue a “new” flexible furlough agreement each time and document the agreed flexible furlough arrangement.

Keep records of everything for 5 years, and in some cases for 6:

You must keep a written record of the furlough agreement for 5 years.

And you need to keep more information for six years:

(i) the number of actual hours an employee on flexible furlough has worked:

(ii) the number of hours the employee is furloughed (i.e. hours the employee is not working);

(iii) the amount claimed and the claim period for each employee;

(iv) the claim reference number;

(v) the calculations used when preparing claims; and

(vi) the “usual” hours of those on flexible furlough (including the calculations used to reach the figures).

Additionally, it’s suggest making a file note explaining any decisions taken in relation to furloughing employees.

Our thanks to Tax Journal for providing advice above.