Bank’s plan to ban working from home angers staff

WORKING from home doesn’t work, a bank has said, as it announced plans to scrap policies advocating flexibility.

Employees at BNY Mellon have been told that they will need to be at their desks during normal office hours unless otherwise agreed.

The investment bank, which has around 3,000 UK workers, currently has a flexible working policy that allows staff to work from home several days a week. BNY Mellon said it was now looking “to maximise the benefits of people working closely together”.

The proposals have been met with anger by workers, with some saying it will cause them to leave.

In internal messages, seen by the London Evening Standard, one employee describes the move as a “massive step backwards for diversity and inclusion which hits our most vulnerable demographics including carers, working parents and those with mental health issues”. Another mother said she would “effectively be forced to resign” and find work at a company with a more flexible working policy.

In the UK all workers have the right to request flexible working arrangements, which employers then have to consider in a “reasonable manner”.

BNY Mellon said its flexible working practices were under review as part of a wider drive for better efficiency, and told The Daily Telegraph that no final decision had yet been made on its flexible working policy.

A spokesman for the company said: “We have been conducting a comprehensive review of how we work together to increase collaboration, enable faster decision-making and better serve our clients.

“As part of that process, we are reviewing all remote working arrangements in order to maximise the benefits of people working closely together while maintaining some degree of flexibility.”