{"id":452869,"date":"2026-02-04T07:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/452869\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:54:09","slug":"bjarke-ingels-group-workers-demonstrate-at-london-office-against-mass-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/452869\/","title":{"rendered":"Bjarke Ingels Group workers demonstrate at London office against mass layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG<\/a>) workers demonstrated today outside BIG\u2019s London<\/a> office in Broadgate to protest<\/a> layoffs. Staffers were seen holding flags and banners in the drizzling rain demanding protections from mass redundancies first announced by firm leadership in December, jumpstarted on January 5, 2026. The protest was mounted by Unite the Union<\/a>\u2019s Section of Architectural Workers (SAW-Unite<\/a>), the trade union for architectural workers in the U.K.<\/p>\n

More than half of BIG\u2019s staff in the London office of approximately 160 employees are SAW members. Seventy-two employees may be laid off after a \u201cmajor project in our London studio was terminated end of November last year due to circumstances beyond our control,\u201d a spokesperson for BIG told AN.<\/p>\n

Economic data mined by Unite-SAW recently showed that profits are way up at BIG over the past five years, but \u201cexisting projects are so understaffed that workers are already working long into the night\u201d and other BIG offices are \u201ccurrently mass-hiring.\u201d These factors make mass redundancies in London antithetical, Unite-SAW said.<\/p>\n

Now, workers have six demands.<\/p>\n

Unite-SAW is calling upon leadership at BIG to recognize the union, engage with its elected representatives, enter meaningful consultations with the union to explore alternatives to layoffs, and pledge six months of backpay for all workers who may be terminated. Other demands relate to better financial and mitigation transparency, and fair redundancy terms for workers who relocated to London on skilled Visas.<\/p>\n

The BIG spokesperson told AN \u201cwe are unfortunately not in a position to meet\u201d demands for \u201can additional 6 months of pay.\u201d They went on to note, \u201cour leadership team is committed to the continuous dialogue with those affected in a thoughtful and constructive manner, in full accordance with U.K. guidelines and due process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bigUnite-SAW is calling upon leadership at BIG to recognize the union and engage with its elected representatives. (Courtesy SAW-Unite)<\/p>\n

Declan Murphy, a regional office manager for Unite, alleged that after workers pushed back against the layoffs in December, leadership at BIG started union busting. \u201cBIG management has entered this redundancy process in bad faith,\u201d Murphy said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve excluded associates from the pool, rejected every alternative proposal put forward by workplace representatives, and are now forcing compulsory redundancies whilst paying \u00a37.5 million [$10.2 million] in dividends to shareholders last year,\u201d Murphy continued. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about business necessity, it\u2019s about protecting profits at workers\u2019 expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angela Brady, former RIBA president, is monitoring the situation. Brady said in a statement: \u201cMembers of the Unite-SAW have brought to my attention a serious problem evolving within the London office of BIG over the proposed mass redundancies. It would appear that there is adequate work within this successful profit making office to accommodate these architectural workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brady continued: \u201cI believe that all RIBA Chartered Practices should respect their staff, their work-life balance and mental health, particularly in relation to the \u2018hire and fire\u2019 that threatens our profession, along with the unacceptable long hours culture that some practices thrive on. \u2026\u00a0 It would be advisable for BIG\u2019s London management team to listen to the advice of the Union, for a fair and reasonable outcome. Otherwise, I fully support any proposed demonstrations that will bring it to everyone\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBIG has acted in good faith throughout and with the intention of minimizing job losses wherever possible alongside efforts to strengthen our pipeline,\u201d BIG\u2019s spokesperson told AN, in response to union busting allegations. \u201cWe deny claims that we have sought to intimidate employees or undermine lawful union activity. Our focus remains on treating all staff with respect, transparency, and fairness during a challenging period for both the studio and the wider industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) workers demonstrated today outside BIG\u2019s London office in Broadgate to protest layoffs. Staffers were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-452869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}