Skip to main content
Furlough scheme should continue until at least next spring, unions urge
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak

ENDING the furlough scheme too early could kill any recovery before it even starts, unions have warned.

The government began reducing the contribution it makes to the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) today, with employers having to pay an initial 10 per cent towards the 80 per cent of wages that furloughed workers receive.

About 2.4 million workers remained on furlough at the end of May, down from a peak of nearly nine million at the height of the pandemic a year before.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
General view of the Job Centre Plus on Benalder St in Glasgow
Economy / 21 March 2026
21 March 2026

PHILIP ENGLISH says military spending will not create the jobs young people need — instead, build an economy based around needs, not profit

Crowds assembled in Trafalgar Square, London, for the union rally in support of the workers sacked in the print union dispute with Rupert Murdoch's News International, April 6, 1986
Workers' Rights / 24 January 2026
24 January 2026

SHARON GRAHAM reflects on the lessons of Murdoch’s confrontation with print workers – and argues that, in an age of AI, automation and net zero, only early organisation, collective power and planning can stop history repeating itself

Unite the union general secretary Sharon Graham
Economy / 13 November 2025
13 November 2025