Your help helps us to inform the story
From reproductive rights to local weather change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the bottom when the story is creating. Whether it is investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our newest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light-weight on the American girls preventing for reproductive rights, we all know how essential it’s to parse out the information from the messaging.
At such a vital second in US historical past, we want reporters on the bottom. Your donation permits us to maintain sending journalists to talk to either side of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans throughout your complete political spectrum. And in contrast to many different high quality information shops, we select to not lock Americans out of our reporting and evaluation with paywalls. We imagine high quality journalism ought to be obtainable to everybody, paid for by those that can afford it.
Your help makes all of the distinction.
Calls to return to workplaces on a extra common foundation proceed to be a theme as we head into 2025, with a number of huge organisations ordering their workforce to increase their time at the desk. Now Lloyds Banking Group is doing the identical – with the potential for bonus cuts for individuals who don’t comply.
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Sotland are all owned by the Group, which has lately introduced plans to let customers of any of those brands use the others to do their in-branch banking, fuelling considerations that extra branches might shut in areas the place they’re doubled up.
Senior bankers at Lloyds are anticipated to obtain payouts subsequent month for his or her 2024 efficiency, with annual outcomes detailed on 20 February, however the group has confirmed that reviewing workplace attendance will now comprise one a part of performance-related targets, per the Guardian.
In 2023 hybrid staff have been advised to be within the workplace 40 per cent of the time, which equates to 2 days per week for full time workers.
“The inclusion of a metric on complying with the requirement for some employees to attend workplaces for 40% of their working time mustn’t create issues whether it is utilized pretty, and is delicate to people’ circumstances with mature and cheap judgments utilized,” stated Ged Nichols, basic secretary of the union Accord, which represents Lloyds employees.
A Lloyds spokesperson added that the financial institution “provide[ed] an industry-leading approach to flexible working which delivers many advantages for our colleagues whereas making certain that we’re well-placed to ship on our formidable technique to rework our enterprise and proceed to ship for our clients”.
Lloyds even have a brand new scheme which provides junior employees and the lowest-paid members of the workforce the prospect to earn larger bonuses based mostly on efficiency, which Nichols labelled a “welcome introduction”, so long as it was “funded individually and should not made potential by decreasing the worth of the usual awards for everyone else.”
JP Morgan, which employs over 300,000 folks worldwide, received complaints from some employees after asking them to return to the office five days a week beginning in March.
Starling Bank, Britain’s online-only financial institution which is backed by Goldman Sachs, advised employees to come back again to the workplace in November regardless of reportedly not having house to accommodate them, prompting a wave of resignations.
