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UK Edition
22nd June 2021
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THE HOT STORY
City bosses warn against right to work from home
Remote working should not become something forced into UK law, senior financial services industry officials have warned. The UK might soon see legislation to allow employees to work flexibly by dividing their time between the office and home, despite the government previously pushing back against suggestions that it could become law. New legislation would build on the experience of millions who have worked from home since the pandemic started in March last year. Many companies have already said they plan a mix of remote and office working once Covid restrictions are lifted. “Legislation would be inappropriate,” Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of the Lloyd's of London insurance market, told City & Financial's City Week event. “We have to allow different sectors of the economy to adapt in different ways to address this opportunity, frankly, for a more mixed economy of remote and physical work.”
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REMOTE WORKING
The workers pushing back on the return to the office
Employers are beginning to unveil their post-pandemic visions for work, but pushback movements from employees who are keen to retain their work-from-home privileges are bubbling up. Localised protests may be indicative of more widespread resistance among workers to revert to pre-pandemic patterns, reports Brian O’Connor for BBC Worklife.  Employees may well feel they've proved they can be productive at home – and that the reasons companies say they want them back in the office don't stack up. For example, Apple’s pre-pandemic policies discouraged remote work, and early in June, CEO Tim Cook sent out a company-wide memo telling staff they would be required back in the office by early September. But post-Covid-19, the tech company’s employees are challenging what they call “a disconnect between how the executive team thinks about remote/location-flexible work and the lived experiences of many of Apple’s employees.” Kimberly Merriman, professor of management at the Manning School of Business at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, observes:  “A few numbers really reach far. Companies should be concerned when any number of employees complain like that [the Apple case]. It can escalate and give an impression, even if it’s a small number of employees, that this is the tone of the organisation.”
Double-edged sword for business as hybrid working sticks
A survey by the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has found that over three-quarters of office-based businesses expect their staff to spend at least one day a week working from home after the pandemic, with almost one in five predicting no return to the office at all. A separate study from LinkedIn reveals almost half of employees want hybrid working, 38% want to work remotely for good and just 12% want a full-time return to the office. The upshot is businesses serving commuters face permanently lower footfall. Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, said “there will be casualties” among city centre businesses. “It is going to be horrible, it means a loss of what were perfectly good businesses prior to the pandemic,” he said. However, independent retailers in towns and suburbs could benefit as home workers visit local shops more frequently, he added.
WORKFORCE
Bumble to give 'burnt-out' staff a week's break
Bumble, the dating app where women are in charge of making the first move, has temporarily closed all of its offices this week to combat workplace stress. Its 700 staff worldwide have been told to switch off and focus on themselves. Bumble has had a busier year than most firms, with a stock market debut, and rapid growth in user numbers. Senior executive Clare O'Connor revealed on Twitter that founder Whitney Wolfe Herd had made the move "having correctly intuited our collective burnout." Ms Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman, at 31, to take a company public in the US when she oversaw Bumble's stock market debut in February.
LEGAL
Bar Council: qualifications bill could harm profession
Plans to create a new framework for recognising overseas qualifications could damage the legal profession, according to the Bar Council. In a briefing issued this month, the Bar Council said the Professional Qualifications Bill subjects regulators’ admission powers to an economic test of unmet need. The bill is currently at committee stage in the Lords and is due to replace the EU’s mutual recognition of professional qualifications directive (MRPQ). “Clause 2 subjects the power to make regulations under clause 1 to an ‘unmet demand’ test,” the Bar Council told peers. “While economic need, in some form or another, may well be treated as a condition for market access or entry to the territory by overseas professionals, treating it as a requirement to be met before a person who is otherwise sufficiently qualified/experienced . . . can be admitted to the national profession is inimical to the concept of MRPQ.”
STRATEGY
Treasury looks beyond the EU for financial services ties
Economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister John Glen says the UK is seeking deeper financial services ties with trading partners beyond the European Union to help the Square Mile thrive post-Brexit. “When it comes to developing a more open industry, we've been working hard seeking new international financial services agreements,” said Mr Glen. “We've already signed a number and we're continuing the financial services dialogues with other countries, including the US, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, China, India and Brazil.” Mr Glen told the City Week conference: “While openness means deepening international relations, we think it also means improving our own domestic competitiveness too so that we can take full advantage of our new position on the world stage. And that means creating the right conditions for industry to thrive outside the EU.”
INTERNATIONAL
Hong Kong ahead of London and NY in bid to get bankers back in the office
London and New York are falling behind Hong Kong in the race to get bankers back in the office, with Morgan Stanley already having 70% of its Hong Kong workers back at their desks and Credit Suisse around 70%. JP Morgan plans to reach that same office occupancy in the coming weeks, while Bank of America aims to reach full office capacity in Hong Kong by the end of this month. An HSBC spokeswoman said the bank's Hong Kong headquarters was now open for all staff to return but that people could choose between working from office and home. “I hated working from home,” said a sales banker at HSBC. “I missed being able to chat with my colleagues all the time for leads and gossips. It was not fun at all at home.”
Labour law architect says rules mustn’t impede growth
Tito Mboweni, South Africa’s current finance minister and the architect of many of the country’s labour laws, says it may be time to review them to ensure they aren’t impeding economic growth. He has said that when he served as the first post-apartheid labour minister from 1994 to 1998 “we made a number of mistakes that need to be attended to . . . To what extent are some of the labour policies we put in place acting as binding constraints?” [and] How do we make sure that our labour laws don’t impinge on the ability of small and medium enterprises to function effectively?”  Bloomberg notes that South Africa’s labour laws have been both praised and criticised for protecting workers rights and discouraging hiring in a country where a third of the labour force is unemployed - in part because of their rigidity.
US Supreme Court sides with food giants in child labour suit
The US Supreme Court has sided with Nestlé and Cargill in a lawsuit that claimed the companies knowingly bought cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labour. The justices ruled 8-1 in favour of the food companies and against a group of six adult citizens of Mali who claimed they were taken from their country as children and forced to work on cocoa farms in neighboring Ivory Coast. Justice Clarence Thomas said: "Although respondents' injuries occurred entirely overseas, the Ninth Circuit held that respondents could sue in federal court because the defendant corporations allegedly made ‘major operational decisions' in the United States. The Ninth Circuit erred by allowing this suit to proceed."
OTHER
London and New York are the world's top cities for the ultra-rich
London and New York are the most important cities for ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) to live, invest and do business, according to Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report. The two cities rank joint first in the Knight Frank City Wealth Index, ahead of Paris in third position. London was ranked highest in terms of lifestyle and shared top spot with New York in terms of policies toward UHNWIs. Henry Faun, Partner, Knight Frank Private Office, Middle East observed, “Given the established appeal of London as a cultural and business hub, ease of language, attractive educational system and weaker Pound Sterling in recent years, we see Middle Eastern demand for Prime London homes continuing in future years.”

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