The bare bones of the extended CJRS are not giving us employment lawyers much to chew on at the moment! However, the Government gave us a tasty morsel earlier today when it released its new guidance on Shielding and Protecting Extremely Vulnerable People from Covid-19. 

What will come as a relief to both employers and employees alike is the news that employees who are extremely clinically vulnerable may, subject to them meeting other eligibility criteria, be furloughed, at least until the start of December. This would be consistent with the earlier versions of the CJRS, which version 2.0 imitates, although, given the Government's removal of shielding back in the summer, it was by no means a given prior to this announcement. What is unclear is whether the extended CJRS will extend to carers of extremely clinically vulnerable people and/or those at home with children. Given that the schools are open, we would say that the latter is unlikely. In addition, the guidance does expressly state that "other people you live with who are not clinically extremely vulnerable themselves can still attend work if they cannot work from home, in line with the wider rules set out in the new National Restrictions from 5th November 2020". We would advise in the absence of further guidance that carers would not be eligible for the extended CJRS.

We will be producing a detailed e-brief on this once the Government guidance has been released and we have more meat to chew on!  Do sign up for our e-briefs via our website https://www.anthonycollins.com/newsroom.