Owner Santander could be hit with legal action after attempts to force three-day-a-week policy on staff
News that TSB staff could bring employment tribunal claims against Santander, the bank’s new owners, over plans to force employees into the office three days a week highlights the problems lenders face when adjusting work-from-home rules.
TBU, the independent union for TSB staff, said “all roads are going to lead back to employment law” after The Banker first reported that the lender will introduce a mandatory three-day office attendance policy from next year. The change comes after Santander completed its takeover of TSB in April.
The union said: “When the current attendance policy was introduced, TSB led staff to believe that the changes it initiated — two days a week in the office — would be permanent. Given what they were told, many staff made significant changes to their personal lives and arrangements, only now to be told that following the Santander takeover it will be ‘all change’.”
As a result, representatives of TBU are preparing to take their case to the employment tribunal, a move employment experts say illustrates the difficulties in clamping down on remote working.
Daniel Harris, managing director, UK and Ireland at Robert Walters, a headhunter and recruiter that specialises in investment banking, said: “Many professionals no longer view flexible working as a benefit but an expectation. When this is pulled back, it can feel like employers are backpedalling...
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