united-kingdom covid-19 employment
Working 60% hours, via UK furlough scheme. How does this apply to weeks with a bank holiday?
<p>I'm on partial furlough, working 60% hours,  with the gov. furlough scheme paying the fourth day.</p>
<p>Next week has a bank holiday Monday.</p>
<p>Should I still work 3 days that week, with Monday and Friday as the days off? Or should I work only 2 days that week, ensuring that Monday and 2 other days are off?</p>
<p>I'm unsure how the bank holiday affects this.</p>

<p>Here's what the gov't has to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Furloughed workers</strong>
Where a bank holiday falls inside a worker’s period of furlough and the worker would have usually worked the bank holiday, their furlough will be unaffected by the bank holiday.</p>
<p>However, if the worker would usually have had the bank holiday as annual leave, there are 2 options.</p>
<p><strong>The bank holiday is taken as annual leave</strong></p>
<p>If the employer and the worker agree that the bank holiday can be taken as annual leave while on furlough, the employer must pay the correct holiday pay for the worker. Employers may also require workers to take the bank holiday as annual leave with the correct notice periods.</p>
<p><strong>The bank holiday is deferred</strong></p>
<p>If the employer and the worker agree that the bank holiday will not be taken as annual leave at that time, the worker must still receive the day of annual leave that they would have received. This holiday can be deferred till a later date, but the worker should still receive their full holiday entitlement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So if you would normally have the Bank Holiday off (and as part of your annual leave entitlement) <strong>and</strong> you and the employer don't agree to defer it then it's annual leave, <strong>not</strong> Furlough, as to what that means for pay purposes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Furloughed workers</strong></p>
<p>An employer should not automatically pay a worker on holiday the rate of pay that they are receiving while on furlough, unless the employer has agreed to not reduce the worker’s pay while on furlough.</p>
<p>If a worker on furlough takes annual leave, an employer must calculate and pay the correct holiday pay in accordance with current legislation - see the standard guidance. Where this calculated rate is above the pay the worker receives while on furlough, the employer must pay the difference. However, as taking holiday does not break the furlough period, the employer can continue to claim the 80% grant from the government to cover most of the cost of holiday pay.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what does this mean with regards to your number of days?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Employees can take holiday whilst on furlough. If an employee is flexibly furloughed then any hours taken as holiday during the claim period should be counted as furloughed hours rather than working hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well it means that <em>if</em> you're off on the Bank Holiday (as annual leave) even though they have to <em>pay</em> you the full amount it is still counted as a furlough day and you'll still be working <strong>three</strong> days that week, with the Monday being a furlough day. If you and the employer agreed to defer the Bank Holiday <em>then</em> you could conceivably work the Monday + two other days. But there's no permutation where you only work two days without taking an additional leave day.</p>
