Amazon delays return of staff to its London HQ by two months

Retail giant Amazon have told staff to continue working from home into 2021, leading a wave employers who are delaying a return to the office amid soaring coronavirus cases.

The company previously announced plans to allow workers worldwide to stay at home if they could do their job ‘effectively’ until early January.

But after the government announced plans to put London into Tier Two lockdown restrictions to clamp down on virus cases, they pushed back the expected return date for UK employees to March.

Amazon’s giant British headquarters in London’s Principal Place, which can hold up to 5,000 staff members, have been largely empty since the first lockdown in March this year.

Retail giant Amazon have told staff to continue working from home into 2021, while its British headquarters in London’s Principal Place have been largely empty since March this year

From Saturday, Londoners will be banned from mixing with other households indoors, including in bars and other venues.

Offices and public transport can remain open, but the government’s general advice to work from home where possible stands.

Essex, Elmbridge, Barrow in Furness, York, North East Derbyshire, Chesterfield and Erewash will also be placed into the Tier Two category

With 18,980 new cases reported yesterday, it appears firm are concerned about setting definitive dates for a return to the office.

More than half of accounting firm KPMG’s 17,000-strong workforce who would usually work at a clients’ office or a company workplace had joined other staff who were already working from home.

The company is believed to have reopened their offices with Covid-19 secure measures, but only staff who ‘need’ to come in are doing so.

Tim Jones, Chief Operating Officer at KPMG: ‘As an organisation we have always been prepared to work remotely at a large scale and, whilst the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated it, we see a hybrid model as the future for our business and our clients.

‘Throughout this crisis, we have stringently followed the most up-to-date scientific and government advice and will continue to do so.

The government has announced plans to put London into Tier Two lockdown restrictions to clamp down on virus cases (pictured, deserted Oxford Street)

‘We expect a large proportion of colleagues to continue to work from home for the remainder of the year but our offices will remain open for those who have a business or wellbeing need to come in.’

KPMG have also devised their own app for staff to complete a risk assessment on before they return.

Banking firm Standard Chartered’s London-based headquarters meanwhile is believed to remain mostly empty, with less than one in six staff returning so far.

A source said the company had recently told workers to only come in to their Moorgate headquarters if ‘you are unable to work from home’, meaning occupancy could be ‘as low as 10 per cent’.

It is not clear whether the new government restrictions would change the company’s position, but the source added Standard would comply with any instructions.

It comes as figures revealed the UK’s unemployment rate spiked higher in August, a clear sign that the jobless rate is heading towards levels not seen in 30 years.

The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday that unemployment rose by 138,000 in the three months to August from the previous three-month period.

The unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 per cent, its highest rate since early 2017, from 4.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

From Saturday, Londoners will be banned from mixing with other households indoors, including in bars and other venues (above, Catford Mews shopping centre on September 23)

The British economy endured one of the deepest recessions in the spring and while it has rebounded in the past few months, it is still about 10 per cent smaller than it was at the end of 2019.

The main reason why unemployment has not spiked sharply higher has been the government´s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has paid most of the salaries of workers who have not been fired.

Some 1.2 million employers have taken advantage of the program to furlough 9.6 million people at a cost to the government of nearly £40 billion ($52 billion).

At one stage, around 30 per cent of the U.K.’s working population was on furlough. Although they weren’t working over the past few months, they were not counted as unemployed.

Since the program ends at the end of October, many of those still on furlough are expected to be made redundant and unemployment to rise further.

How more than 210,000 job losses have been revealed by major UK firms since lockdown began

Some 210,781 job losses have been announced by major British employers since the start of the coronavirus lockdown in March as follows:

October 7 – Greene King – 800
October 6 – Virgin Money – 400
October 6 – Vp – 150
October 5 – Cineworld – 5,500 (many cuts likely to be temporary)
September 30 – TSB – 900
September 30 – Shell – 9,000 worldwide
September 29 – Ferguson – 1,200
September 22 – Wetherspoon – 400 to 450
September 22 – Whitbread – 6,000
September 18 – Investec – 210
September 15 – Waitrose – 124
September 14 – London City Airport – 239
September 9 – Lloyds Bank – 865
September 9 – Pizza Hut – 450
September 4 – Virgin Atlantic – 1,150
September 3 – Costa – 1,650
August 27 – Pret a Manger – 2,800 (includes 1,000 announced on July 6)
August 26 – Gatwick Airport – 600
August 25 – Co-operative Bank – 350
August 20 – Alexander Dennis – 650
August 18 – Bombardier – 95
August 18 – Marks & Spencer – 7,000
August 14 – Yo! Sushi – 250
August 14 – River Island – 350
August 12 – NatWest – 550
August 11 – InterContinental Hotels – 650 worldwide
August 11 – Debenhams – 2,500
August 7 – Evening Standard – 115
August 6 – Travelex – 1,300
August 6 – Wetherspoons – 110 to 130
August 5 – M&Co – 380
August 5 – Arsenal FC – 55
August 5 – WH Smith – 1,500
August 4 – Dixons Carphone – 800
August 4 – Pizza Express – 1,100 at risk
August 3 – Hays Travel – up to 878
August 3 – DW Sports – 1,700 at risk
July 31 – Byron – 651
July 30 – Pendragon – 1,800
July 29 – Waterstones – unknown number of head office roles
July 28 – Selfridges – 450
July 27 – Oak Furnitureland – 163 at risk
July 23 – Dyson – 600 in UK, 300 overseas
July 22 – Mears – fewer than 200
July 20 – Marks & Spencer – 950 at risk
July 17 – Azzurri Group (owns Zizzi and Ask Italian) – up to 1,200
July 16 – Genting – 1,642 at risk
July 16 – Burberry – 150 in UK, 350 overseas
July 15 – Banks Mining – 250 at risk
July 15 – Buzz Bingo – 573 at risk
July 14 – Vertu – 345 July 14 – DFS – up to 200 at risk
July 9 – General Electric – 369
July 9 – Eurostar – unknown number
July 9 – Boots – 4,000
July 9 – John Lewis – 1,300 at risk
July 9 – Burger King – 1,600 at risk
July 7 – Reach (owns Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers) – 550
July 6 – Pret a Manger – 1,000 at risk
July 2 – Casual Dining Group (owns Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge) – 1,909
July 1 – SSP (owns Upper Crust) – 5,000 at risk
July 1 – Arcadia (owns TopShop) – 500
July 1 – Harrods – 700
July 1 – Virgin Money – 300
June 30 – Airbus – 1,700
June 30 – TM Lewin – 600
June 30 – Smiths Group – ‘some job losses’
June 25 – Royal Mail – 2,000
June 24 – Jet2 – 102
June 24 – Swissport – 4,556
June 24 – Crest Nicholson – 130
June 23 – Shoe Zone – unknown number of jobs in head office
June 19 – Aer Lingus – 500
June 17 – HSBC – unknown number of jobs in UK, 35,000 worldwide
June 15 – Jaguar Land Rover – 1,100
June 15 – Travis Perkins – 2,500
June 12 – Le Pain Quotidien – 200
June 11 – Heathrow – at least 500
June 11 – Bombardier – 600
June 11 – Johnson Matthey – 2,500
June 11 – Centrica – 5,000
June 10 – Quiz – 93
June 10 – The Restaurant Group (owns Frankie and Benny’s) – 3,000
June 10 – Monsoon Accessorise – 545
June 10 – Everest Windows – 188
June 8 – BP – 10,000 worldwide
June 8 – Mulberry – 375
June 5 – Victoria’s Secret – 800 at risk
June 5 – Bentley – 1,000
June 4 – Aston Martin – 500
June 4 – Lookers – 1,500
May 29 – Belfast International Airport – 45
May 28 – Debenhams (in second announcement) – ‘hundreds’ of jobs
May 28 – EasyJet – 4,500 worldwide
May 26 – McLaren – 1,200
May 22 – Carluccio’s – 1,000
May 21 – Clarks – 900
May 20 – Rolls-Royce – 9,000
May 20 – Bovis Homes – unknown number
May 19 – Ovo Energy – 2,600
May 19 – Antler – 164
May 15 – JCB – 950 at risk
May 13 – Tui – 8,000 worldwide
May 12 – Carnival UK (owns P&O Cruises and Cunard) – 450
May 11 – P&O Ferries – 1,100 worldwide
May 5 – Virgin Atlantic – 3,150
May 1 – Ryanair – 3,000 worldwide
April 30 – Oasis Warehouse – 1,800
April 29 – WPP – unknown number
April 28 – British Airways – 12,000
April 23 – Safran Seats – 400
April 23 – Meggitt – 1,800 worldwide
April 21 – Cath Kidston – 900
April 17 – Debenhams – 422
March 31 – Laura Ashley – 268
March 30 – BrightHouse – 2,400 at risk
March 27 – Chiquito – 1,500 at risk

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