Furlough

Carer made redundant instead of furloughed was unfairly dismissed

A tribunal has found that a carer was unfairly dismissed during the pandemic as her employer failed to consider furlough instead of redundancy.

Pandemic changed managers' mind on part-time workers

Managers are more open to the benefits of part-time workers after trialling bringing furloughed workers back part-time during the pandemic.

Furlough fraud cost HMRC £100 million

HMRC estimates organised crime gangs used the furlough support scheme to defraud £104 million since 2020.

Thousands leave self-employment in pandemic

The number of people in self-employment has fallen sharply since the pandemic, according to data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Young ethnic minorities continue to bear brunt of insecure work

Young people have swiftly returned to work since losing jobs in the pandemic, but many have had unequal opportunities when coming back to the workforce – or have fallen out of it altogether.

Employers criticised for keeping coronavirus support money

Greencore, John Lewis Partnership and WH Smith have joined a list of companies facing criticism for reaping financial reward during the pandemic, yet not repaying money secured from the government for...

Omicron variant: how can businesses weather the storm?

Cases of COVID in the UK have leapt by 65,000 in past week as concerns over the Omicron variant grow.

You can’t stop the beat: profile interview with Zoe Pacyna, REKOM UK

Despite nightclubs and the wider world of hospitality being one of the first business sectors to shut their doors when the coronavirus pandemic hit, Rekom UK’s Zoe Pacyna found it was far from a quiet...

Life after furlough: are government job schemes enough?

With the furlough scheme having now come to an end, the government has announced additional support for employers in the form of an extension to the Plan for Jobs. Moving forward, it will be down to...

Rethinking the employer/employee relationship post-furlough

Welcome back, strangers. Much has been made of the risk to employees from the ending of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). But in addition to potential redundancies, the end of furlough also...

How can HR reintegrate staff post-furlough?

An estimated one million people were still on furlough as the scheme ended today (1 October).

Older workers ceasing employment earlier due to COVID

Older workers have been exiting the workforce earlier since March 2020, according to new Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) analysis.