British bankers are fed up with their slacking European counterparts… but can’t get rid of the ‘deadwood’: How Brexit drove London firms to Paris and Frankfurt – but strict employment laws stop bosses from firing lazy workers

Europe’s strict labour laws have become a haven for lazy bankers who can’t be fired by their bosses, leaving their colleagues back in Britain furious.

European financial hubs like Paris and Frankfurt were bolstered by Brexit, with many London firms having opted to hire workers across the Channel. 

It followed fears – which ultimately failed to materialise – that the 2016 referendum would lead to a mass exodus of British financial talent from the City post Brexit.

However, now top executives are starting to regret their expansion in Europe after coming up against the EU’s strict employment laws – with angry UK bankers claiming the rules have made it impossible for firms to sack ‘deadweight’ underperformers. 

One senior figure claimed the bank they were working in, which has not been named, had ‘people in Paris that they’ve wanted to get rid of for 10 years’.

Europe’s strict labour laws have become a haven for lazy bankers who can’t be fired by their bosses, leaving colleagues back in Britain furious (pictured is the Bank of England, London)

Others accused underperforming staff of taking advantage of Europe’s rules favouring lazy workers, with one using them to avoid getting sacked – and instead demanding a £500,000 salary at a more high-profile location. 

Meanwhile, one insider at a company based in Frankfurt, said staff applying for jobs with a £150,000 starting salary would often ask when they’d be able to take their first sabbatical break and would often ask if they would have to work weekends. 

‘When redundancies happen it’s never there. Even with the recent lay-offs, our bank couldn’t get rid of the absolute deadwood in Paris,’ one outraged exec in the UK told the Telegraph. 

The strict nature of France’s labour laws were highlighted earlier this month when it was revealed that the BBC’s Gabby Logan and Clare Balding will be unable to present evening and morning athletic sessions during this summer’s Olympics.

It comes as the working time directive dictates that employees must have a minimum of 11-hours between shifts. 

Attempts to change the rules have previously sparked protests in the streets of Paris.  

And as anger deepens over the strict work legislation on the continent, a number of top financial institutions have decided to cut ties with Paris and retreat from the French capital. 

Among them include hedge fund Brevan Howard, which is now reconsidering its base in Paris, while rival ExodusPoint has already closed its HQ in the romance capital. 

Pictured are workers in France protesting in Paris as part of an inter-union demonstration against austerity in 2013

Other workers took to the street in Paris demanding extra pay, with this demonstrator holding a placard that said: ‘Raise our salaries, not the shareholders’.  (Pictured in 2013)

One executive who reportedly travelled to Germany to see just how ‘bad’ things were was left stunned after discovering how workers were successfully ‘playing a game where you can’t get rid of them – they’re coming up with any reason not to come in and there’s nothing you can do about it’.

British banking bosses are now fearful the UK might be going in a similar direction as France and Germany, with Labour promising to radically improve workers’ rights. 

Paris has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EU rules, gaining about 7,000 extra finance jobs since Britain left the European Union.

Many major firms were initially lured to the city by Emmanuel Macron, himself a former investment banker. 

Macron promised employer-friendly reforms and had some early success. But his efforts enraged the French and have been met with repeated street protests.

Among the finance giants opening up in Paris was Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which now have about 400 people in the French capital. 

While Goldman recently moved Dirk Lievens there, one of its star London bankers. 

JP Morgan has close to 1,000 staff in Paris, while Bank of America has about 650 and Morgan Stanley roughly 300.

As well as Paris, Frankfurt in Germany (pictured) has also benefitted from UK banks opening more bases there since Brexit 

Hedge funds Citadel and Millennium Management are among those to have also opened Paris hubs since Brexit.

Last week’s King’s Speech contained a pledge to roll out a raft of new workers’ rights backed by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. 

Among the changes champion by the new Labour government included protection from unfair dismissal from day one in a job, a ban on some zero-hours contracts and an overhaul of the minimum wage.

But critics fear this could plunge the UK into a new French-style labour market, where workers could increasingly take advantage of their employers. 

Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party suffered a cataclysmic defeat to Labour in General Election earlier this month, warned the UK was moving closure to the French-style labour laws in his response to MPs in Parliament. 

The former Prime Minister argued the UK had benefited from a ‘flexible labour market’ compared to other countries in Europe, and that it should remain like this.

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