Thousands of Barclays staff revolt over return-to-office mandate

Thousands of Barclays staff are pushing back against the bank's plans to have them work in the office more often. The bank had announced that staff would be expected to be in the office at least three days a week from October, with senior employees expected to come in at least four days a week.

According to City AM, over 1,000 staff have signed a letter organised by the union Unite, which represents nearly 80 per cent of Barclays' 45,000 UK staff. The letter calls for an exemption for those living more than a 40-minute commute away and for payouts to help cover travel costs. Unite's national officer, Rick Coyle, said that thousands of employees have signed the letter and that the union will be speaking to Barclays about the strength of feeling on the issue.

The move is part of a larger trend of banks facing resistance to efforts to limit remote working practices that became the norm during the pandemic. The UK government has recently unveiled plans to give workers greater rights in requesting working from home arrangements.

Brief written by urgent.news from Guardian Business, City AM — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.