1/ Along with a thousand other #ukemplaw-yers, here's a hastily compiled thread on this evening's guidance: gov.uk/guidance/claim…
2/ 1st up, what the £2,500 covers. It covers "usual monthly wage costs". That excludes fees, commission & bonuses. Employer NIC contributions & minimum auto-enrolment pension contributions can be claimed on top. 
3/ For those on variable monthly salaries, there is a choice of calculation: (i) the earnings in the same period in 2019; (ii) average over the last 12 months (or monthly average for a shorter period if they've not been in the job for the whole year).
4/ Who does it apply to? Anyone on the PAYE payroll as at 28.02.20. That includes zero hour contract workers and agency workers if on PAYE. It includes anyone on the payroll at 28.02.20, made redundant thereafter & then re-hired.
5/ Can you chop and change employees in and out of furlough? Sort of. It only applies to furlough for 3 weeks plus, so you can't just chop and change week by week. Short-time working is also not covered under the scheme (as we all knew already)
6/ This will cause problems. Imagine the factory production line where Coronavirus hits the non-furloughed employees. The employer may be forced to order someone back to work in circumstances where that order deprives them of furlough payments.
7/ If the employee either had a lay-off clause already in their contract or agrees to a basic furlough clause, that's a costly instruction without obvious recourse against the employer.
8/ Can an employee work whilst on furlough? No, at least not for that employer. It's implied that they can work elsewhere though (indeed the scheme can apply to an employee in each of his jobs).
9/ However, if they volunteer or undertake training for the claiming employer, that will render them ineligible if that generates revenue for the employer or is the provision of a service to the employer. There's no explanation of what that means.
10/ What about those on maternity leave or sick leave? If on sick leave, I'm afraid it's SSP rather than furlough payments. On maternity leave (or similar) it doesn't affect the statutory position but furlough payments can be used to meet enhanced contractual pay.
11/ What happens to the 20% (or more if earning over £37,500) not paid under the scheme? Cryptically the guidance says the employer can choose to pay the top up but isn't obliged to under the scheme. The guidance is silent about contractual rights here or s.13 deductions.
12/ How should the contractual obligation to pay a defined salary be squared? The guidance suggests this should be contractual amendment by 'agreement'. Well that'll be nice and easy then...! No helpful statutory implied term to simplify matters.
13/ So how can an employer claim? By providing specified information, including a calculation of the amount. This should be consistent with payroll. The guidance says "you can only submit 1 claim at least every 3 weeks". That is what we call bad English.
14/ I think what they mean is don't submit your claim more regularly than once every three weeks. I could be wrong. But who knows?
15/ Is the employer required to pay salary first before claiming? Seemingly not. The guidance requires all the amount received to be paid to the employees & allows for a claim on an imminent payroll. The previous guidance spoke of 'reimbursement' but this doesn't.
16/ That will be a relief to some (if right). I know of at least 1 company where employees have been laid off with the employer saying he wasn't going to claim under the scheme as he couldn't afford to pay his staff in order to await reimbursement.
17/ Questions of timing of pay are of course contractual and employers/advisers may wish when amending contracts to craft an exception re timing of salary for furloughed employees.
18/ Did the author of the guidance read the @thebigbogg & @MichaelFordQC article? There's no obvious sign that they did. If they did, they've happily ignored almost all of the concerns raised within it.
19/ Does the guidance enable an employer to rest easy with furlough decisions? No. A forest of dangers lies ahead. Expect disenchanted employees (in either direction - furloughed or not) to threaten breach of contract & discrimination claims aplenty when unhappy with decisions.
20/ So there we go. Some meat on the bones at least to enable "I don't know" to be turned into more concrete advice, but plenty of questions unanswered & plenty for the already stressed employer to think about before furloughing anyone. #ukemplaw
