RBS staff reportedly told to work from home until Christmas

(Sharecast News) - Thousands of Royal Bank of Scotland staff will continue to work from home for the rest of the year despite new government guidance encouraging workers to get back to the office from next month.
According to reports, RBS has told more than 50,000 staff not to make any plans to work from the office until 2021.

The lender, which is due to switch its name to NatWest on Wednesday, told the majority of employees that they will work from home at least until December. Previously, RBS had planned for staff to start returning to work in September.

The news comes just days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that government advice to work from home if you can will be scrapped from 1 August, amid concerns over the impact on businesses located in city centres and near office buildings. Instead, the onus will be on the employer.

Roughly 10,000 RBS staff have continued to work at branches and offices throughout the pandemic, alongside another 400 who have been called into work at offices and call centres due to regulatory requirements related to the nature of their work.

Last week, phone data analysed by the Centre for Cities think tank on behalf of The Times showed that only one in eight workers in London has gone back to the office.