On an unprecedented scale, the scheme for partial short-time working was one of the main tools used by the government to support businesses and keep employees in their jobs, particularly during the first lockdown in the second quarter of 2020, at the height of the public health restrictions introduced to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. A quarter of the workforce was thus on short-time working, and over the course of 2020 as a whole, 55 per cent of establishments made use of the scheme for at least some of their employees.
What were the arrangements, key factors and consequences of the use of short-time working?
