Like many charities, we have been hit hard financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we took the difficult decision to place some of our employees on the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, also known as “furlough”. Sixty percent of our employees are on this scheme, and our other employees have agreed to take a 20 percent reduction in their salaries. You can read more about this here.
We know other sectors are also struggling right now, and they want to support their own staff through offering them access to the furlough scheme. We fully support this approach. We also know some organisations want to support their furloughed staff at 100 percent salary.
After discussing with our trustees, we have agreed our grant funding cannot be used to top up salaries to 100 percent for furloughed staff employed on our grants. This has not been an easy decision, but we cannot support a position that would be unequal to the situation for our own staff.
We welcome the updated statement from the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) that recognises the position charities like ours are in. You can read this in full here.
Our priority is what it always has been: making every day count for people with muscle-wasting conditions and their families. We remain committed to supporting research, as well as providing information and advice to help people live well with their condition and campaigning on important issues.