Dr. Chhoda explores guidelines from the Department of Labor about your options if you are a furloughed worker and you are called back to work.

A furlough reduces hours, days, or weeks employees may work and usually has a finite length. … In general, furloughed staffers are still technically employees: they retain their employment rights and generally their benefits. Laid off workers are no longer employees, and lose their benefits and protections.

QUESTION

I was furloughed by my employer, but they have now reopened and asked me to return to my job. Can I remain on unemployment?

ANSWER
No. As a general matter, individuals receiving regular unemployment compensation must act upon any referral to suitable employment and must accept any offer of suitable employment. Barring unusual circumstances, a request that a furloughed employee return to his or her job very likely constitutes an offer of suitable employment that the employee must accept.

While eligibility for PUA does not turn on whether an individual is actively seeking work, it does require that the individual be unemployed, partially employed, or unable or unavailable to work due to certain circumstances that are a direct result of COVID-19 or the COVID-19 public health emergency. In the situation outlined here, an employee who had been furloughed because his or her employer has closed the place of employment would potentially be eligible for PUA while the employer remained closed, assuming the closure was a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency and other qualifying conditions are satisfied. However, as soon as the business reopens and the employee is recalled for work, as in the example above, eligibility for PUA would cease unless the individual could identify some other qualifying circumstance outlined in the CARES Act.