‘The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”) on 20th March 2020 with the aim to protect jobs during the crisis. A recent estimate is that this could cost £30-£40 billion over three months[1] and the take-up by businesses is much higher than expected such that 50% of companies are putting most of their staff into the scheme. We are all becoming familiar with the term ‘furlough’ (i.e. to allow or force someone to be absent temporarily from work) and up to nine million workers are now expected to be furloughed. The Scheme was necessarily hastily written in response to an unforeseen crisis and, despite government guidance issued on 27th March 2020 which was updated on 4th April 2020 and then again on 9th April 2020[4], employment lawyers are finding themselves advising on the gaps in the regime. The online service through which employers can make a claim is expected to be up and running by the end of April 2020 however in the interim employers, with the help of their advisors, are having to interpret the guidance to inform significant business decisions.’

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Parklane Plowden, 14th April 2020

Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk

‘A contract may come to an end by operation of the doctrine of frustration when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or radically different to what the parties originally intended. The doctrine applies to employment contracts as it does to other types of contract. However, it is an issue rarely encountered by employment lawyers. Tribunals are generally reluctant to find that an employment contract has been frustrated, largely because the doctrine allows employers to sidestep statutory protections afforded to employees. However, unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, and frustration may become a useful tool in certain employers’ fight against the disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic.’

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Parklane Plowden, 1st April 2020

Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk