There are several scenarios where an employee could be returning to work during Covid-19 period, here is how each of these is handled:
Employees returning to work from family-related statutory leave
Family-related statutory leave includes maternity leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, adoption leave, parental bereavement leave and unpaid parental leave.
In line with other employees, claims for full or part time employees furloughed on return from family-related statutory leave should be calculated against their salary, before tax, not the pay they received whilst on family-related statutory leave. The same principles apply where the employee is returning from a period of unpaid statutory family-related leave.
Claims for those on variable pay, returning from statutory leave should be calculated using either the:
- same month’s earning from the previous year
- average monthly earnings for the 2019 to 2020 tax year
Employees returning to work after being on sick leave
In line with other employees, claims for full or part time employees furloughed on return to work after time off sick should be calculated against their salary, before tax, not the pay they received whilst off sick.
Claims for those on variable pay, returning to work after time off sick should be calculated using either the:
- same month’s earnings from the previous year
- average monthly earnings for the 2019 to 2020 tax year
Employees returning to work after unpaid sabbatical or unpaid leave
If your employee has been on unpaid sabbatical or unpaid leave, you’ll need to use the amount they would have been paid if they were on paid leave when calculating 80% of their wages.
