New starters and the furloughed worker scheme
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2020
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
People who have recently begun new jobs say that the government’s plan to help businesses hit by coronavirus may treat them unfairly. Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, a business can choose to furlough workers – that is, keep them on the books but not working and at home. The government will pay 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 per month. Companies may choose to top up furloughed employee wages to 100 per cent. However, to be eligible for furloughing, workers have to have been in employment with the company on February 28th, 2020. New starters say that unfairly leaves out people who happened to be between jobs on that date. It also means that people who have changed jobs since then cannot ask to be furloughed by their new employer. We hear the experiences and concerns of new starters and employers, alongside Edwin Morgan, director of policy at the Institute of Directors, and employment lawyer Amy Wren of Farrer and Co. Then we put your points to Harriet Baldwin, MP - a Conservative member of the Treasury Select Committee and former economic secretary to the Treasury.
There's an update on the Financial Conduct Authority's proposals for new rules on lending. And on the podcast, happy news from a Money Box-inspired wedding. Presenter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Paul Waters Editor: Hugh Levinson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? |
| 0:21.3 | When lies are still being told to this day, who do you believe? |
| 0:25.1 | I wouldn't even know where to start, and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. |
| 0:29.6 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.6 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:34.5 | Hello. |
| 0:35.3 | Last week on Moneybox, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority |
| 0:39.1 | revealed he'd be meeting the banks to see what extra protection could be given to customers. |
| 0:44.0 | Later in the program, we'll update you on what's happened since. But first, it's two weeks |
| 0:49.0 | since the Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed his unprecedented plan to help businesses pay their |
| 0:53.9 | employees during this crisis. |
| 0:55.9 | Today, I can announce it for the first time in our history, the government is going to step in |
| 1:01.2 | and help to pay people's wages. We're setting up a new coronavirus job retention scheme. |
| 1:09.0 | Government grants will cover 80% of the salary of retained workers up to a total |
| 1:14.4 | of £2,500 a month. The scheme will cover the salaries of workers who've been furloughed by their |
| 1:20.9 | employers. Now, furlough is a fairly new term for most of us. It used to refer to an employee |
| 1:26.5 | being given a leave of absence. Now it's |
| 1:28.9 | a term the government uses for workers who are being kept on the payroll, even though they |
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