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Comment by mr_gibbins | Hacker News Reader

I wish there was some kind of list for the UK. Our news services are shockingly bad.

Although lots of UK companies won't be making any redundancies until the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends. It's much easier to put UK workers on the 80% pay furlough scheme than firing them. As soon as that money dries up expect companies to make lots of mass redundancies. It's going to be interesting to see the UK government's exit strategy from this crisis, immediately terminating the scheme before the economy has recovered will result in a huge increase in unemployment but keeping the scheme means productivity won't recover as people able to work productively are sat at home doing nothing.

Keeping the scheme is also going to blow a massive hole in the budget. That said, Brexit will likely give them more room to fire up the pound printing presses to paper over the gap.

> but keeping the scheme means productivity won't recover as people able to work productively are sat at home doing nothing.

Productivity will recover when businesses can use resources productively. It's either keep the scheme running until quarantine measures are reduced enough to allow businesses to start ramping back up and productivity increases again, or remove the scheme and push people to unemployment which is worse for productivity. If the government is daft enough to stop the scheme before the quarantine measures are reduced we're in for a shit-show of a decade.

This depends on which is worse for productivity: unemployment or furlough. I think in some cases furlough is worse for productivity as workers that could be working for another employer and have in-demand skills are sitting idle. In a free-market devoid of minimum wages and government packages, wages would be going down massively but fewer people would be doing nothing.

For companies letting go more than 100 people, there is a mandatory consultation period of 45 days, and 30 days for more than 20. There was actually a story a few days ago that this scheme needed to be extended soon or some employers would be legally obliged to start that process. Not sure if that happened yet.

What's particularly interesting is that to make people redundant you have to notify them 6 weeks before. And 6 weeks before the end of the government guaranteed furlough period is ... today.

My neighbour literally said to me over the fence the other day 'yay! furloughed!' with a thumbs up and a smile. I wasn't impressed.

Mandatory consulting period for UK redundancies is 30 days or 45 days for larger employers - while some may have started it won't be hitting yet. It's the small companies to watch out for; can't have a consultation if you're insolvent.

I suspect many will not bother with consulting periods given the circumstances. It opens them to possible tribunal action, but rulings and penalties are usually mild, tribunals take ages to go through, and very few people bother or even know that you have to start the process within 3 months.

(If morbidly curious, you can keep an eye on tribunal outcomes at https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions .. I just checked this month's unfair dismissal outcomes and not a single one was in the complainant's favour, though some may have been withdrawn due to negotiating an offer.)

Found any interesting ones? https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/ms-j-mee-v-... was like reading a novel.

Not really. I'm tempted to write something to slowly scrape them all to find them though. I once found one about a fist fight(!) at a barbershop and the person who started the fight took the employer to a tribunal and lost.

What do you mean, everybody is happy Mr Prime Minister is out and about, and you have page 3 still? All peachy then.

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