Earlier this week, the Government’s furlough scheme opened and, within 30 minutes, numerous outlets reported that almost 70,000 claims had been made on behalf of employees. By 4pm that same day, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced that more than 140,000 employers had already applied for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the daily press briefing. Since then, numerous organisations including Primark and John Lewis have used the scheme to furlough tens of thousands of staff members. High-profile celebrity bosses, such as Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney, have also furloughed staff under the Government’s scheme though their decision to do so has been met with heavy backlash.
