Businesses in the international travel industry have been among the hardest hit by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of those businesses are likely to face difficult choices in the coming weeks and months, including, in some extreme cases, whether to go into administration.
In this blog post, Cressida Mawdesley-Thomas and Tim Goodwin of 12 King’s Bench Walk look at a decision handed down on Easter Monday by Mr Justice Snowden, which provides some helpful and timely guidance as to how the CJRS operates in the particular context of companies going into administration.
The latest government guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “CJRS”) is available here. HM Treasury’s direction to HMRC regarding the application of the CJRS can be found here.
Background
The Italian restaurant chain, Carluccio’s entered into administration on 30 March 2020 and had no money with which to continue paying the wages of its 2,000 employees. Therefore, unless the administrators could access the CJRS, they would have to make the workforce redundant.
The administrators of Carluccio’s were hoping to “mothball” the business, with a view to selling it. As such, the administrators did not want to make the employees redundant as it would have had a negative impact on the value of the Carluccio’s business. Accordingly, shortly after their appointment, the administrators made an offer to place the employees on furlough pursuant to the CJRS. The overwhelming majority of employees accepted the furlough offer, although a few rejected it, and some did not respond.
Importantly, the administrators were only willing to furlough employees if the costs of doing so were met by the Government under the CJRS.
The CJRS
Two features of the scheme that are particularly relevant in the context of insolvency:
- A claim is made by the employer, not the employee, and the Government will pay any grant monies into the employer’s bank account, not directly to the employee;
- The grant monies are to be accounted for as income by the employer.
These features mean that any grant monies paid by the Government under the CJRS will constitute assets of the company in administration.
How is the CJRS supposed to work in an insolvency process?
The guidance on the scheme that was available before Mr Justice Snowden (provided by the Government on 9 April 2020) noted as follows:
“Where a company is being taken under the management of an administrator, the administrator will be able to access the Job Retention Scheme. However, we would expect an administrator would only access the scheme if there is a reasonable likelihood of rehiring the workers. For instance, this could be as a result of an administration and pursuit of a sale of the business.” (Emphasis added.)
The difficulty in this case arose because the new CJRS does not, on one reading, sit comfortably with the Insolvency Act 1986 (the “Act”).
- Under the Act, administrators may only dispose of the assets of a company in administration in accordance with the insolvency legislation and, in particular, by making payments in the order of priorities prescribed in that legislation.
- Paragraph 99(5) of Schedule B1 of the Act allows administrators to ‘adopt’ the contracts of employees. Employees who are adopted by the administrators have super-priority as creditors in respect of the assets of the business.
- As such, under the Act, grants paid to an employer in administration from the CJRS should only be paid out to employees in priority to other creditors if they have been ‘adopted’. Otherwise such grants received by the employer, which are part of the assets of the company, should be available to creditors according to the normal priority rules.
A question therefore arises whether an employee placed on furlough is technically adopted for the purposes of the Act. If not, any sums paid to them from the CJRS will be in breach of the relevant insolvency legislation. But equally, if any sum received by the company or administrator from the CJRS is not paid to the furloughed employee but instead redistributed to other creditors, that will be a breach of the CJRS.
The case and the decision
The evidence before the court was that there had been several expressions of commercial interest in Carluccio’s, and that accordingly there was a reasonable likelihood of achieving a sale of the business. If that happened, at least some of the employees would be transferred to the buyer and, after the current lockdown is eased, they would be able to resume work. This was held by Snowden J to be “what is meant by the expression ‘rehired’ in the Scheme Guidance.” Snowden J went on to conclude that, consequently, in this case the CJRS “ought to be available” to Carluccio’s in respect of its furloughed employees.
This is important as it will mean that workers in the travel industry may be able to receive the CJRS grant payments, if there is a reasonable likelihood of their employer being sold and their work being transferred to another employer.
Interpreting the Insolvency Act 1986 to give effect to the CJRS
In part, resolving the issue required considering whether the act of placing an employee on furlough under the CJRS constituted ‘adoption’ under the Act.
The leading authority on the meaning of adoption in the context of insolvency is the House of Lords case of Powdrill v Watson & Anor (Paramount Airways Ltd) [1995] 2 A.C. 394. In that case, Lord Browne-Wilkinson held “the mere continuation of the employment by the company does not lead inexorably to the conclusion that the contract has been adopted by the administrator or receiver”.
Applying Paramount Airways, Snowden J held that paragraph 99(5) Sch B1 of the Act should be interpreted in such a way as to permit the CJRS to be given effect, and thus support the Government’s efforts to deal with the economic consequences of COVID-19.
Importantly, Snowden J held that if administrators permit the contracts of employees to continue, without termination, beyond the initial 14 day period where the main or only purpose of doing so is to enable those employees to respond to offers to vary their contracts to allow them to be furloughed, that does not constitute adoption under paragraph 99(5). Therefore, there was no requirement for the administrators to “cautiously” make the employees redundant (to avoid them being ‘automatically’ adopted), which would have the unintended consequence of extinguishing their ability to be furloughed.
Practical Implications
- If the approach adopted by Snowden J is followed, there does not appear to be any conflict between the pre-existing insolvency legislation and the CJRS.
- Where an employee accepts an offer of furlough, they will be treated as adopted and can receive CJRS payments. Where the employee refuses or ignores the offer, they will not (subject, perhaps, to the wording of the offer).
- Administrators do not necessarily need to make employees redundant for fear that doing nothing will mean their employment contract has been adopted.
- There may be a duty on employers and/or administrators, depending on the facts, to take steps to give employees the opportunity to be furloughed (and receive the benefit of grants made to the employer under the CJRS), as opposed to dismissing those employees.
Conclusion
Mr Justice Snowden’s guidance may offer workers some comfort that even if their employer goes into administration, it may still be able to take advantage of the CJRS, provided that there is a reasonable likelihood of the employee’s services being re-hired.
It is also noteworthy that much of what practitioners, and indeed the public, are having to rely on at the moment is guidance from the Government, rather than established and tested law. For that reason, a decision from the High Court as to how the CJRS applies in certain circumstances is especially welcome. However, this remains a constantly moving area and we will keep you updated.
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