Laid off with no work: £41 a day, five days a quarter, £205 in all

Orders have dried up, the warehouse is idle, and your employer says: stay at home for now. In the UK that situation has a name, a set of rules and a very modest payment attached. The payment is called guarantee pay, and the law caps it at £205 over three months.

What counts as being laid off?

The law separates two situations. A lay-off is when you are off work for at least one working day. Short-time working is when your hours are cut, so you do come in, but for less than usual.

ADV · A001ONLYWAY JEWELRY — gold, silver and platinumRings, chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants. Delivery across the UK.Advertise here

Your employer can ask you to stay at home or take unpaid leave if there is not enough work for you. There is no maximum period: the law does not say "no longer than a month".

Should you still get your full pay?

As a rule, yes. You should get your full pay unless your contract specifically allows lay-offs to be unpaid or paid at a reduced rate.

That is the first thing to check. Open your contract and look for the lay-off clause. If there is no such clause, your employer cannot move you onto guarantee pay unilaterally — they have to keep paying you as normal.

What is guarantee pay worth?

If your contract does allow unpaid lay-offs, the statutory minimum takes over. The maximum is £41 a day, for no more than 5 days in any 3-month period. That is a ceiling of £205 per three months.

If you usually earn less than £41 a day, you get your normal daily rate rather than £41. If you work part time, the entitlement is worked out proportionally.

ADV · A003We build websites for tradespeople and sole traders — £219Customers see your work and prices and message you straight away. Ready in 3 days, £219 instead of £438.Advertise here

One detail catches people out: you cannot claim guarantee pay for any day on which you did some work at all.

Who does not qualify?

There are four conditions and you need all of them. You must have been employed continuously for at least one month — part-time work counts. You must reasonably make sure you are available for work. You must not refuse reasonable alternative work, including work that is not in your contract. And the lay-off must not be the result of industrial action.

Turning down a different task because "it is not my job" works against you here: the law explicitly contemplates work outside the contract, as long as the offer is reasonable.

What if your employer runs its own scheme?

Employers can have their own guarantee pay arrangements. By law those cannot be worth less than the statutory minimum. But the two do not stack: if you are paid under your employer's scheme, you do not get statutory guarantee pay on top.

The lay-off is dragging on — what then?

This is where the employee gains some leverage. If the lay-off or short-time working has lasted four weeks in a row, or six weeks within a thirteen-week period, you can apply for redundancy and claim redundancy pay.

So nobody can be kept at home unpaid indefinitely. Past a certain point the situation turns into a redundancy question, and redundancy has a price attached for the employer.

What if nothing is paid at all?

Failing to pay guarantee pay counts as an unlawful deduction from your wages. That is a ground for a claim to an employment tribunal in its own right.

The practical order is straightforward. First, put in writing the days on which you were not called in, and ask your employer on what basis the day went unpaid. Then raise it through the company's own grievance route. The tribunal comes after that, and it has its own time limits for bringing a claim.

Keep one thing in view throughout: guarantee pay is not a benefit and not a substitute for wages. Five days in three months, with a £205 ceiling, means that a long lay-off quickly becomes a different question — redundancy, or another job.