City firms relax office-working policies as Tube strikes hit London

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Some City of London firms with the strictest return-to-office policies have loosened their demands as a result of the latest round of strikes on the London Underground.

Companies that have most fervently insisted on their staff being in the office, including investment bank JPMorgan and tech giant Amazon, have relaxed their rules this week, employees told the FT.

Businesses have increasingly called on staff to return to the workplace more frequently amid a desire to return to pre-pandemic work habits and end the phenomenon of empty office floors on Mondays and Fridays.

But the fresh walkout by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers trade union, which started at midday on Tuesday, has led City employees to return to homeworking once again.

Amazon, whose boss Andrew Jassy ordered a five-day return to office in 2024, has allowed internal team leaders to give staff more discretion to work from home rather than be in their office in Shoreditch, east London, as part of allowances for “extenuating circumstances”, employees said.

One staff member said: “The expectations are five days a week, so try and come in if you can, but there’s always been the approach where it’s OK to work from home as and when.”

Meanwhile staff at JPMorgan — whose boss Jamie Dimon is one of the most vocal opponents of remote working — have been told to discuss with their managers additional flexibility to manage the strike.

One person close to the bank said that because the strike did not affect all Tube lines equally, it had not felt the need to be prescriptive and people could work from home if needed.

The two 24-hour stoppages by some Tube drivers are the largest since a walkout last September closed the entire underground network, forcing millions of workers to get to work by bicycle, bus or on foot.

Tuesday’s strike — which will be followed by a second from midday on Thursday — is the first of six one-day actions over April, May and June. RMT union workers have walked out over fears that plans for a shorter working week would force them to work longer hours on a given day.

Santander UK, which has moved from hybrid working to a three-day office week mandate, said: “There are no changes to our policies, which allow for flexibility around events like this week’s Tube strikes.”

The Financial Reporting Council, the accounting watchdog, has told staff they can work from home this week. Analysts at Panmure Liberum have been given flexibility to work from home, though traders still have to make their way in.

Steven Fine, chief executive of Peel Hunt, which put in place a four-day office week policy last year, said the investment bank was “not changing policy for one week, but telling people to use their common sense”.

“It’s a bit of a yawnfest, because it’s a bit ‘here we go with another Tube strike’,” he added. “It’s frustrating that it’s on Tuesday and Thursday so it messes with the working week. I predict the City will be even more dead on Friday.”

The rise of cycle hire companies such as Lime and Forest has blunted the impact of strikes on London commuters, though retail and hospitality sectors are often hit by the subdued activity during walkouts.

Additional reporting by Ellesheva Kissin