Professors Alan Bogg and Michael Ford cited in Commons briefing on Covid19 and Job Retention Scheme

9 April 2020

Two blog posts co-written by the Law School’s Professor Alan Bogg and Professor Michael Ford QC, examining the Government’s recently put forward Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, were extensively cited in a House of Commons Library briefing paper published last week.

On 20 March 2020 the UK Government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as part of a range of Government measures to support businesses and protect economic activity, including jobs and income, during the Covid-19 pandemic, so as to ensure that employers who cannot pay staff wages do not make redundancies.

Professors Bogg and Ford wrote the first blog post for the UK Labour Law Blog, ‘Legislating in Times of Crisis: The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’, on 23 March, just after the announcement of the Scheme.

Their article outlined the inadequacy of the current UK labour law framework in holding up under the urgent measures needed within the nationwide COVID-19 emergency and highlighted complex challenges the Scheme would encounter. The post also offered proposals and provisions for amending the Scheme and for emergency legislation, while applauding it as “a radical step which both sides of industry welcome.”

An update was posted on the UK Labour Law Blog on 31 March, ‘Not Legislating in a Crisis? The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Part 2’, following guidance published by the Government on 26 March clarifying the scope, meaning and effect of the Scheme. The article again recognised the urgency with which the Scheme was put together but pointed to serious problems that risked undermining the protections the Scheme aimed to provide.

In particular, the article identified a risk that vulnerable groups such as agency workers and those on zero-hours contracts might fall into a gap between the Job Retention Scheme and the related scheme for the self-employed. It also pointed to issues such as the lack of incentives for employers to re-engage workers already dismissed, and the absence of roles for workers or unions in the employers’ process of deciding who is to be furloughed, “with detrimental consequences for collective solutions to the crisis.”

Both blog posts by Professors Bogg and Ford were cited extensively in a House of Commons Library briefing paper on 2 April covering a number of frequently asked questions on the Scheme. The concerns they raised were noted in several answers, including around the Scheme’s covering of workers already made redundant.

The paper also cited the blog posts in relation to several questions around furloughing workers, such as whether employers have an automatic right to furlough workers; whether agency workers and zero-hours workers can be furloughed; how employers should select which workers to furlough; and if being furloughed affect continuity of employment - noting that “Alan Bogg and Michael Ford QC have argued that UK employment law is not suited to contractual variations in times of crises”

Read the full briefing paper on the House of Commons Library website.

Further information

Alan Bogg is Professor of Labour Law, Co-Director of the Centre for Law at Work and an Emeritus Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford. His current research projects are examining freedom of association; common law fundamental rights; the role of criminalisation in work relations; and the future of the social democratic constitution.

Michael Ford QC is a Professor of Law, a QC at Old Square Chambers, a fee-paid Employment Judge and a Deputy High Court Judge. His principal areas of research and practice are labour law, EU law and human rights. He is on the Equality and Human Rights’ Commission’s ‘A’ panel of specialist counsel and acted for them in the Supreme Court successful challenge to fees in the employment tribunal. In practice he has covered over 60 reported cases in the House of Lords, Supreme Court, Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice.

The Law School Coronavirus Research Hub brings together the work of academics at the forefront of global efforts to mitigate against the impact of COVID-19 through law and policy adaptation, and to understand the immediate and longer-lasting impacts of the pandemic.

The Centre for Law at Work is dedicated to fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue around legal issues related to work. Embracing a wide range of methodological approaches to the study of law at work, the Centre’s members academics combine internationally-recognised research profiles with a wealth of experience working with organisations that are responsible for policy-development, professional regulation and social advocacy. By engaging diverse voices and perspectives the Centre aims to influence policy at national, transnational and international levels.

LLM Employment, Work and Equality - This programme is designed to enrich understanding of employment, work and equality law, investigating the various legal disciplines that regulate work relations. An opportunity to examine wide-ranging questions concerning the impact of law, regulation, policy and practice, the programme is taught by a world-leading group of labour lawyers.