Furloughing are you getting away with it?
For those of you who read my post yesterday titled “Can we just be honest?” can I just say a huge thank you. for the posts on Linked in and the 300+ emails I have received. It is so gratifying to hear from like minded professionals who share my business principles; so much so that I’ve decided to ask a further question “Furloughing – are you getting away with it?”
Like many businesses, I’ve had to make some tough decisions recently, and like many others too I’ve been hugely grateful for this particular Government intervention. Without it, who knows where we would have been?
However, what sickens me to the core is when I hear of people working and claiming – what one described to me as “nothing wrong in just getting a bit of the BOJO cash is there?”. For anyone, let alone Directors with fiduciary responsibilities to think that it is acceptable to defraud the country, you, me, and our dependants for years to come is beyond me.
Last week I had a recruitment Consultant from a competitor phone me up because they were so upset and worried that they were still working whilst they knew their company was claiming for them.
My advice to anyone in this position is to make contact with HMRC via https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/report-fraud-to-hmrc where investigations can then be undertaken in due course.
However, is this enough?
I don’t think so. I think it is beholden on Company Owners & Directors to step forward and declare that they have followed the rules, that they have complied with the regulations in their entirety upholding the spirit and intent in which they were created.
So here for the record, I will lead the way. I can confirm that Focus have never claimed furlough payments for any colleague working.
There that isn’t too difficult is it? Or is it?
Perhaps all food sector recruiters would like to post a reply to this thread with the same unequivocal certainty?
What do you think?
I would love to hear from you and also welcome input from my network. As with yesterday’s post more than happy to receive private emails also. [email protected]
Purpose-led communications leader | Making a meaningful difference | Agency CEO | B Corp Leader | Experienced consultant and speaker | Passionate ESG & DEIB advocate | Author in the making
4 年The scheme has been a life saver, being a creative agency with a fairly hefty payroll bill our revenue fell off a cliff to the tune of 80% in March, we've just reviewed our Q1 financial performance (March - May) and whilst there's a lot of damage we're stabilising the business as a result of all the support available from this scheme. Now that we can part-time furlough as well we're even more grateful that we can start to bring our staff back bit by bit. There's no need to be dishonest with this scheme it's been great and doesn't need abuse. We've kept in touch with our staff on furlough all the way through and encouraged them to develop their skills so I feel lucky to be running a business based in the UK. Gutting to see people take the mick but there's always a minority who ruin it for others, hopefully the majority of businesses have sound ethics.