A furlough (; from nl, verlof, "

leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...

") is a temporary leave of employees due to special needs of a company or employer, which may be due to economic conditions of a specific employer or in society as a whole. These furloughs may be short or long term.

United States

US federal government

In the United States, involuntary furloughs concerning federal government employees may be of a sudden and immediate nature. Such was the case in February 2010, when a single

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

objection prevented emergency funding measures from being implemented. As a result, 2,000 federal workers for the Department of Transportation were immediately furloughed as of March 1, 2010. The second-longest such shutdown was December 16, 1995, to January 6, 1996, which affected all non-essential employees, shutting down many services including

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, visa and passport processing, parks, and many others. This happened again on October 1, 2013, and on January 19, 2018. The United States Congress failed to pass a re-authorization of funding for the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

, and as a result, furloughed about 4,000 workers at midnight on July 22, 2011.

Potential furlough in 2011

Congress was on the verge of forcing a government shutdown on April 8, 2011, if their plan to reduce the federal budget deficit was not resolved, which would have caused the furlough of 800,000 out of two million civilian federal employees.

Furloughs in 2013

The first federal government furloughs of 2013 went into effect as a result of

budget sequestration Budget sequestration is a provision of United States law that causes an across-the-board reduction in certain kinds of spending included in the federal budget. Sequestration involves setting a hard cap on the amount of government spending with ...

(or sequester) – the automatic spending cuts in particular categories of federal outlays. (This procedure was first used in the

Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget Act The Gramm–Rudman–Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 and the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (both often known as Gramm–Rudman) were the first binding spending constrain ...

of 1985.) The sequesters were designed to take place if the

federal deficit The national debt of the United States is the total government debt, national debt owed by the federal government of the United States, federal government of the United States to United States Treasury security, Treasury security holders. The ...

exceeded a set of fixed deficit targets. In 2013 specifically, sequestration refers to a section of the

Budget Control Act of 2011 The Budget Control Act of 2011 () is a federal statute enacted by the 112th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Barack Obama on August 2, 2011. The Act brought conclusion to the 2011 US debt-ceiling crisis. The law inv ...

(BCA) that was initially set to begin on January 1, 2013, as an

austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...

fiscal policy In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variables ...

. These cuts were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1, when this law went into effect. At that time, most federal departments and agencies began furloughing their employees in order to meet their spending cut targets. For the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

, almost all of the civilian workforce as well as most full-time, dual-status military technicians of the

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

and the Reserves were affected. The initial furlough requirement was 176 working hours per affected employee, which was later cut to 88 hours. Due to cost-cutting measures in other areas, this furlough was further reduced to a total of 48 working hours per DoD civilian and full-time Reserve Component member. Later, on October 1, 2013, at 12:01 am EDT, Congress' inability to agree on a spending bill led to a government shutdown. During the shutdown, most "non-essential" government employees were furloughed. This resulted in approximately 800,000 government workers being put on a leave beginning October 1. Congress later unanimously voted to restore pay to the furloughed workers.

Furloughs in 2018 and 2019

Due to the government shutdown starting on December 22, 2018, approximately 350,000 federal employees were furloughed for 35 days until January 25, 2019.

Furloughs in 2020

In September 2019 the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

issued Fact Sheet #70 governing furloughs. These rules have remained in place (), but with new developments in connection with the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

, new rules and guidance could be issued at any time. The

has a Coronavirus Resources page which can be consulted for the latest developments.

Schools

Board members of various school districts as well as universities implemented "furlough days" in 2009. This made students pay the same rate, if not more, for their education while providing fewer educational days by forcing educators and staff members to take the day off. In states such as

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, the

Board of Regents In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual col ...

of the

University System of Georgia The University System of Georgia (USG) is the government agency that includes 26 public institutions of higher learning in the U.S. state of Georgia. The system is governed by the Georgia Board of Regents. It sets goals and dictates gene ...

included a clause so that mandatory furlough days are implemented but no classes are lost during the 2009–2010 academic year. In

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, the State Employee Trades Council (SETC) voted to implement a mandatory two-day-per-month furlough policy for the staff and faculty of the CSU system. The furloughs, intended to prevent layoffs, began in August 2009, and ended in June 2010. The 10% cut saved about $270 million of the CSU's $564 million budget deficit.

Private sector

During the global recession of 2009 companies such as

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

, and

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems ...

considered furloughing their own employees. In 2020, retail giants, including

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawai ...

and

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, furloughed thousands of employees because of decreased sales connected to the

. In April of 2020,

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

furloughed over 100,000 employees, while almost all Disney executives kept their jobs and received bonuses.

United Kingdom

The word ''furlough'' was used until at least 1908 to describe military personnel home on leave. It was also widely used by religious groups in the twentieth century to refer to the periods when their missionaries returned to the UK on long leave.

COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Her Majesty's Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

introduced what was described as a "furlough" programme to support employers and workers. For many years the term "furlough" had been very little known in the United Kingdom, and many HR managers were not acquainted with the US "furlough" system. Formally named the ''

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) was a furlough scheme announced by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 20 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The scheme was announced on 20 March 2020 as providi ...

'', it funded businesses to continue paying up to 80% of employees' salary for those that would otherwise have been made unemployed.

Philippines

In the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, a furloughed employee is deemed to be placed on "floating status". The

Labor Code Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, particularly Article 301, provides a legal basis for the furlough process of an employee; an employee could be furloughed if the business had a "''bono fide'' suspension of operations" or if the said individual should fulfill a military or civic duty. The Labor Code emphasizes that the employment status of a furloughed employee is not terminated. Employees under "floating status" do not render actual work and thus do not receive any salary. However an employee may only be placed on floating status for a period of not more than six months after which the employee could be retrenched or asked to report back to work. During the COVID-19 pandemic the

Department of Labor and Employment The Department of Labor and Employment ( fil, Kagawaran ng Paggawa at Empleyo}, commonly abbreviated as DOLE) is one of the executive departments of the Philippine government mandated to formulate policies, implement programs and services, an ...

issued an order allowing furloughed employees to be extended for a year provided there is mutual agreement between the employer and employee and for employees to look for alternative temporary work without losing their employment status with their original employer.

Other uses

The term furlough in employment can also refer to

annual leave Annual leave is a period of paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes. Depending on the employer's policies, differing number of days may be offered, and the employee may be required to gi ...

long service leave In Australia, long service leave (LSL) is a period of additional paid leave granted to employees who have completed an extended period of service with an employer. Under Australian law, most employees are entitled to long service leave if they wo ...

, time off based on a company-planned schedule. For example, with a "work three weeks, off one week" schedule, a company's workforce is divided into four groups. Each group, in turn, takes a week off on furlough while the remainder work. It can also refer to a vacation from

missionary work A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

military leave In military forces, leave is a permission to be away from one's unit, either for a specified or unspecified period of time. The term AWOL, standing for ''absent without leave'', is a term for desertion used in the armed forces of many English ...

, or, in the case of convicts,

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

conjugal visit A conjugal visit is a scheduled period in which an inmate of a prison or jail is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visitor. The visitor is usually their legal spouse, and the visit's purpose is usually sexual activity. Th ...

, or

work release In prison systems, work release programs allow a prisoner who is sufficiently trusted or can be sufficiently monitored to go outside the prison and work at a place of employment, returning to prison when their shift is complete. Some work release ...

References

External links

Guidance and Information on Furloughs
from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Office of Personnel Management An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

.
Furlough: The worst cockpit terror of them all! What if it happens to you?
by Patrick Smith, May 26, 2006.
CNNMoney special report: Enjoy your forced vacation
March 11, 2009. {{Employment Leave of absence Working time