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On Saturday 31 October, the UK Government announced a new national lockdown and confirmed the extension of the existing Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, more commonly referred to as the “furlough” scheme.

In this alert, we set out what the UK Government has announced and what this means in terms of the support available to employers, including the status of the Job Support Scheme (the “JSS”), which was originally due to replace the furlough scheme from yesterday.

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Continue Reading Extension of the UK Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

On Friday 20th March, the U.K. Government announced various support measures for UK businesses.  One of these was the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”), which it is hoped will reduce the risk that U.K. employers promptly dismiss employees in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.  Further guidance was published on 26th March, providing some much needed detail on various aspects of the Scheme, which is expected to be operational by the end of April.

Any employer in the U.K. can access the Scheme for assistance with salary payments to those employees that would otherwise have been at risk of dismissal for redundancy and who are described for the purposes of the Scheme as “furloughed workers” (a new concept in English law).  Some questions remain, but the key details of the Scheme are:

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Continue Reading The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – Guidance for Businesses with Employees in the U.K.

Following its announcement on Friday 20th March to provide much-needed assistance to UK employers and employees in the short-term through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and intense pressure to provide similar assistance to self-employed workers, the UK Government has released details of a similar scheme intended to support this group: the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (the “SEISS”).

The SEISS will support self-employed individuals (including consultants and members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19, but is unlikely to apply to consultants who provide their services through a personal services company, given the criteria set out below.  Further, the Chancellor indicated that tax payable by the self-employed would, in future, need to be brought in line with that paid by employees.

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Continue Reading U.K. Government Announces Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

  • The speed and severity of the current crisis means UK employers face very difficult and pressing decisions.
  • Some intermediate steps can be taken to preserve workforces for a period and avoid immediate redundancies.
  • Some form of individual or even collective consultation with employees or their representatives may be necessary. This can be used as an opportunity to seek creative, collaborative solutions to preserve jobs in the short-term.
  • We set out a checklist of potential measures below.

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Continue Reading Five Ways to Avoid Redundancies During The Coronavirus Crisis