Why is 17 April 2020 relevant for employers with furloughed staff?

Are you an employer who:-

has furloughed staff; and
do you envisage that you may have to make redundancies if the Government Job Retention Scheme is not extended beyond 31 May 2020; and
have 100 or more staff at one establishment who may be affected?

If the above applies to you, then some urgent consideration will need to be given to whether or not you should file an HR1 form and commence collective consultation because 17 April is 45 days (the minimum period of consultation for 100 or more staff) before 31 May 2020.

Whilst there is a ‘special circumstances’ defence to justify any failure in adherence to the statutory collective consultation process, that has traditionally only been upheld in very narrow circumstances (for example, it doesn’t automatically apply to insolvency situations); given that there is a ‘runway’ of time between now and the anticipated end of the furlough period, a Tribunal is likely to expect employers to have done what they can to comply.

For any advice or assistance please contact Linky Trott or any member of the Employment team.

To view our previous blogs on furlough leave, please click here.

Please note that this blog is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content of this blog.

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