# Furlough



## KCRMoney (17 Jan 2019)

I work in one of the large medical device multinationals in Galway as a contractor. I'm a self employed contractor. I work under a umbrella company structure via a agency. So the multinational pays the agency, the agency pays my umbrella company and my umbrella company pays me. Two days ago a group of us got called in by our boss (Who works for the multinational) and we were told we were been furloughed for two weeks. Furlough is a american term for leave without pay. We were told to leave that afternoon and not return for two weeks. We got about 3 hours notice. I have written contract for 39 hours per week for a period of one year. Can anybody tell me if this is legal? Any help would be great.


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## mathepac (17 Jan 2019)

Who is your contract with?


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## KCRMoney (17 Jan 2019)

It's with the recruitment agency.


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## Jim2007 (18 Jan 2019)

KCRMoney said:


> I have written contract for 39 hours per week for a period of one year. Can anybody tell me if this is legal? Any help would be great.



You don’t have a contract with them so is not your problem, kick it to the agency it’s their problem as they will be the ones out of pocket if they can re invoice your time.  It is amazing how quickly the agent reacts when it is their money.

I had this twice in the past where someone in US corporate had the idea of saving money this way.  In both cases it was resolved to my satisfaction.  Mainly because I made them aware that the cost of playing silly buggers with me would cost them a lot more in cash and office politics than the savings they thought they could make.


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## KCRMoney (18 Jan 2019)

I've talked to them (The agency) and they seem unprepared for this as well. However there not accepting responsibility for now. Can you give me more detail on how you pushed it back to the agency?


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## Jim2007 (18 Jan 2019)

KCRMoney said:


> I've talked to them (The agency) and they seem unprepared for this as well. However there not accepting responsibility for now. Can you give me more detail on how you pushed it back to the agency?



It is not a question of them accepting responsibility or not.  They are the ones with the client contract and they are the ones with the problem.  

As for pushing back, in my case I explained that I would be invoicing them as normal and that I would be expecting them to clear the invoice as normal.  I went on to explain that a failure to do show would result in legal action against them and that I would seek an injection preventing the their client (a very well known bank) from using any of the software I had touched in the previous two years.  I submitted the invoice, which went unpaid.  I then send them a first reminder plus interest and a second reminder plus interest to no avail.  The next thing the got was a notification that I had filed documents to start legal proceedings.  The invoice plus interest was then promptly paid and neither the agent nor their client ever mentioned it again!


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## KCRMoney (18 Jan 2019)

Jim, Thanks for your help on this. I will take your approach and see how I go.


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