Returning back to work help

[Porky]

Calling this person an idiot is truly unfair. If they had reason to worry for their or their families safety, for some people that is more important than money. Employers should try to be understanding, and if there were no concerns before the lockdown on this employee then the reasons they give are probably real.

Obviously any company wants employees who can turn up, but the pandemic is causing many side issues and problems, not everyone can cycle to work for instance, and yesterday you had the PM asking people to stay off public transport.

Replacing good employees is never easy, just because a huge number are about to be made unemployed doesn’t mean a replacement will be any easier to find.

Of course family is far more important than anything, it is my own total priority so I totally get that.

Unless I’m losing the plot here, PB commented that his employee initially was happy staying at home, doing nothing on furlough at 80% pay.

The moment he asked the employee to return they said no, “I will only consider when public transport returns to normal service” and wanted to stay at home on furlough.That could be 12 months away.

As soon as PB said, I am not continuing furlough, I need you back, can you consider other travel arrangements to get here the employee initially agreed to think about it then quit. So clearly, the employee was not prepared to even try to get to the employer. Not even cycle to work or consider any other possible option or discuss how he could get there.

Let’s say the furlough scheme continued for another whole year, do you think it’s right for this employee to sit and home and not even attempt to work yet still be paid whilst colleagues work 35 hours a week for only 20% more? Not to mention everyone is still “at risk” in some format. They would soon get annoyed I can tell you.

Disability and Carers benefit is designed for those that are in that position that can’t work. The furlough scheme imo was designed as a temporary stop gap to stop nationwide redundancies and ease people back into work.

If the employee can’t do the job then the employee is right to consider some other form of work he can do - I hope that’s the case here but I see zero fault on the side of the employer, it’s not the employers job to look at ways to travel safe to and from work.

We don’t know the full facts I guess on both sides so will rescind my idiot remark but my gut feeling is that it was getting far to comfortable staying at home doing nothing on next to full pay for this employee in this situation.

 

[MBE2017]

I doubt many are happy to sit at home and get paid 80% of their salary for doing nothing. Firstly, this was required by the Gov to help reduce the infection rate of this pandemic, secondly, that 80% is being reduced shortly, probably down to 60%. It was never a choice offered to the employees, it was forced on them. It also comes at no cost to the employer.

Having been self employed for 30 odd years, my thoughts are very much along the lines of most on the forum, but this is a unique situation no one has ever lived through before, at least anyone alive and still working.

Knowing how many are due to be made redundant, few employees would be wanting to quit voluntarily at the moment. Anyway, all sorted now.

Just came across this on Skynews from a lawyer....

"For others, the journey to and from work will present a logistical challenge. And that's before the health risks of travelling on public transport."

He added: "In most cases, if the employee doesn't attend work, the employer could notionally seek to dismiss the employee.

"However, in practice that is unlikely to happen.

"A dismissal would almost certainly be unfair.

"In fact, employees who raise concerns about their safety in the workplace, may be able successfully to claim unfair dismissal with increased compensation and without needing any minimum period of service."

 

[preciousbags]

Just to add some more information to this thread

Staff member that left was also out at parks during lock down (Facebook and insta). I didn't make much of it but did question if this person was happy to be out with friends at parks why cannot they come to work.

Additionally upon confirming they wish to leave, they mentioned they will attempt universal credit. Not sure how that all works but in the end I did offer as much as I could to get this member back in, as I'd rather have the staff at this time then go out and seek someone else but that wasn't to be.

I'm one of the lucky ones where lockdown has increased business for us, so we have really done as much as we can in creating a safe workplace for all staff. Unfortunately this member was not on the same page as other staff.

But I assume a lot of businesses may have a similar issue to this in one form or another. Just glad it was resolved so we can move on

 

[Karimbo]

If there is a will there is a way, I think CJRS has made people lazy.

If you must you can buy yourself a chinese clone of a 3m 6800 mask which is a full face respirator and use the public transport to get to work. Not that you need it. IMHO covid19 threat is really overblown.

People have become comfortable receiving 80% of their pay doing nothing. So they just feel why should they go into work and work 35 hours a week for 20% extra.

I feel you have to to be firm and lay people off if they refuse to work.

 

[MOIC]

The OP has highlighted what will happen in many businesses.

There will be many employees who will not return to work for fear of 'safe traveling options'.

This is not a normal situation and some employees will value their health, rather than staying with a current employer.

Actually, I'll go further. The current situation will open people's eyes to what really matters to them.

Many will change their life-style as well as work habits.

IMHO

 

[Mr D]

If there is a will there is a way, I think CJRS has made people lazy.

If you must you can buy yourself a chinese clone of a 3m 6800 mask which is a full face respirator and use the public transport to get to work. Not that you need it. IMHO covid19 threat is really overblown.

People have become comfortable receiving 80% of their pay doing nothing. So they just feel why should they go into work and work 35 hours a week for 20% extra.

I feel you have to to be firm and lay people off if they refuse to work.

Probably not overblown to the tens of thousands of dead people. Probably not overblown to the many more who have been ill.
Some may well have ongoing health issues as a result for years to come.

However you are probably right about some getting used to high pay for zero work. The ones who worked at other things or took time to improve their house or garden may well be able to move back into work easily enough. The ones who enjoyed an extended holiday with 80 percent income and no travel may well find it harder to get back to work.

Lifestyle or job changes for some? Quite possibly.