{"id":808822,"date":"2026-10-20T17:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808822\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:40:10","slug":"union-attacks-natwest-plans-to-get-workers-back-to-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808822\/","title":{"rendered":"Union attacks NatWest plans to get workers back to the office"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Unite union has hit out at a plan by NatWest to reduce the rights of 30,000 of its employees to work from home.<\/p>\n

NatWest says it is moving to a hybrid approach where workers will be required to attend the office at least two days a week, from February.<\/p>\n

The bank says this is still very competitive with the rest of the finance industry, and exceptions will be made for colleagues who require additional flexibility.<\/p>\n

But Unite said NatWest’s decision was “out of touch with the realities facing its workforce”, with many facing higher travel and childcare costs.<\/p>\n

Firms have been gradually drawing people back into the office since working from home became the norm for some office workers during the Covid pandemic.<\/p>\n

In January last year, Amazon required staff to return to the office five days a week after they had been working two days at home.<\/p>\n

Other firms such as Boots and JP Morgan have brought in policies requiring head office staff to be in every day.<\/p>\n

But Barclays faced a backlash<\/a> from staff last month over plans to require workers to go to the office three days a week. It brought in a longer transition period in response to staff and union complaints.<\/p>\n

Unite said NatWest was abolishing its “remote first” employment category, which allows 13,497 workers to attend the office around twice a month, and requiring 17,272 hybrid workers to increase their office attendance.<\/p>\n

The union says that many of the affected workers are lower-paid grades, and the new requirements will increase cost-of-living pressures, while disrupting the arrangements of disabled workers and carers.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called NatWest’s move a “kick in the teeth” for its workers.<\/p>\n

“Thousands of workers face higher travel and childcare costs and disruption to caring responsibilities,” she said<\/p>\n

“For NatWest to impose these changes while reneging on existing agreements shows complete contempt for its workforce.”<\/p>\n

Graham called on NatWest to “ditch these proposals and engage properly with its workers”.<\/p>\n

A NatWest spokesman said: “Flexible working remains an important part of how we work but we’ve also learned more about the value that spending time together brings for our colleagues and customers – helping teams collaborate, share ideas, build relationships and learn from one another.<\/p>\n

“That’s why we’re introducing a more consistent approach across the bank, with colleagues expected to spend at least two days a week in the office, depending on the needs of their role and business area.<\/p>\n

“We recognise this will be a change for some colleagues and we’re giving them time to plan ahead and will support them through the transition.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Unite union has hit out at a plan by NatWest to reduce the rights of 30,000 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}