The British government has been putting across confusing and potentially lethal mixed messages to the country’s workers about an end to the lockdown. On the evening of Sunday, May 10, Boris Johnson used a televised address to suggest that workers in construction and manufacturing should be “actively encouraged” to return to work the very next day. Photos of London’s Tube network packed with early morning commuters circulated on social media.

However, Johnson’s chancellor Rishi Sunak announced two days later that the government’s furlough scheme would be extended until the end of October. Under the terms of the scheme, businesses can ask the government to cover 80 percent of the wage bill for their employees so as to avoid laying them off altogether.

Sunak indicated that employers would be asked to share the burden of furloughing from August, without spelling out what that would entail.