* Some employers still yet to dial down to minimal
staffing-union
* Only a limited number of people shld be "key
workers"-watchdog
* Banks stepping up protections in call centres, branches
* Some staffers ditching home-working by choice
By Sinead Cruise and Huw Jones
LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Some financial firms are
defining an unnecessarily large proportion of staff as "key
workers" to ensure they can still come into the office or branch
to work, according to a union representing thousands of bank
employees.
Together with healthcare workers, supermarket employees and
delivery drivers, bank staff deemed vital to the stability of
the UK economy have been granted freedoms to travel to their
workplaces, under terms of a lockdown which began on March 20.
Some employers have applied the special status excessively
across their workforces, increasing risks to staff health,
according to the Unite union whose membership includes bank
branch employees and call centre workers.
"Unite cannot condone the generalisation of the "key worker
status"," Dominic Hook, national officer at Unite, said.
"There can be no operating a "business as usual"
model and the industry must heed the government measures to
enforce social distancing and isolation."
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) declined to
comment.
Last week, the FCA warned banks that only a limited number
of people should be designated as "key workers" not only to
minimise infections but also ease the burden on schools, which
remain open to children of such staffers.
The regulator said financial services employees who are able
to securely trade shares and other financial instruments from
home should not be required to travel into work and it said that
CEOs of banks would be directly accountable for ensuring they
have a proper process for designating individuals as "key
workers".
Industry trade group UK Finance did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.
Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland
and Lloyds have reduced the opening hours of
many branches and have encouraged customers to bank online to
reduce strain on frontline staff, many of whom now work behind
plastic screens and run queuing systems to minimise exposure.
"We have put in place homeworking arrangements for our
colleagues where it is possible to do so and social distancing
measures in the workplace where homeworking is not possible," a
spokesman for HSBC said.
Call centre staff unable to work from home are working at
safe distances from colleagues in premises that are regularly
deep-cleaned, financial industry sources said, without
quantifying how many or what proportion of their workforces have
been classed as "key workers".
Trading floors and investment banking operations were
running with the smallest numbers of office-based staff possible
to meet regulatory requirements, the sources added, without
quantifying how many or what proportion of their workforces
still come into the office.
"The health and wellbeing of colleagues and customers is our
priority, and we continue to follow UK government advice to
ensure everyone remains safe," a spokeswoman for Lloyds said,
echoing similar statements from Barclays and Royal Bank of
Scotland.
One currencies analyst at a large bank estimated 20% of
staff on his floor were in the London office, including several
from research.
The bank had given those staff the option to work from home,
but the analyst decided to come in after two frustrating weeks
of working from home.
"It’s just easier to be here," the analyst said, declining
to be named.
Some lawyers warned banks needed to be vigilant about the
potential reputational damage from having too many employees
travelling into work.
"Firms need to remember that, to the public, saying they are
a "key worker" is saying they are important like a nurse," said
Rob Moulton, a financial services lawyer at Latham & Watkins.
(Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes. Editing by Carmel
Crimmins.)
