Furlough is changing

Furlough will close to new entrants from Tuesday 30 June. From this point onwards, we will not be able to furlough any employees unless they have been furloughed for the full three-week period prior to 30 June.

This means that the final date by which Royal Mail will furlough an employee for the first time will be Wednesday 10 June in order for the current three-week furlough period to be completed by 30June. 

What does that mean for colleagues who want to apply or have applied to be furloughed due to the need to shield either themselves or others?

• In order to be considered for furlough due to the need to ‘shield,’ all applications (including resubmissions which have previously been rejected) must have been received by 2pm today, Wednesday 3 June 2020.
• Receipt by 2pm 3 June does not necessarily mean that applications will be successful as the criteria have to be met. Please click here for full details.
• Please note that for applications to be successful employees must have used all their annual leave from previous years and taken two weeks of annual leave from this financial year (annual leave must be taken by Tuesday 9 June). We recommend that applicants discuss their annual leave with their manager before applying as the application deadline cannot be extended.
• Applications already received will be processed as quickly as possible. Please note that if the criteria are not met, your application may not be successful and there is unlikely to be sufficient time to reapply.

If you have already accepted and replied to a written furlough agreement offer from Royal Mail Group, there is nothing further you need to do at the moment. If there are any changes to your agreement, we will let you know.

Please contact coronavirus.advice@royalmail.com if you have any questions.