Blow to Boris Johnson’s ‘back to normal’ drive as RBS tells more than 50,000 staff to work from home
Royal Bank of Scotland has told more than 50,000 staff to work from home until next year, in a blow to Boris Johnson’s hopes of kick-starting the economy by getting people back into the office.
The Natwest owner, which is one of the UK’s biggest employers, informed staff in a memo that they could work from home until 2021.
The decision flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s pleas for white-collar workers to return to the office.
Natwest owner Royal Bank of Scotland has told more than 50,000 staff to work from home until next year
He last week urged employees to ‘try to lead their lives more normally’ amid fears that the economy is suffering because so many are working from home.
The move by RBS to hold back its employees will be worrying for local businesses around its major headquarters in Edinburgh and on London’s Bishopsgate, who benefit from the custom of thousands of bank workers every day.
RBS has around 63,000 staff, and around 10,000 have been going into work throughout the pandemic.
Johnson said the Government’s guidance on home working would change from August 1, so rather than telling staff to work from home where possible, the decision would be left with employers.
But the Government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said he saw ‘absolutely no reason’ to change the advice to work from home.