Banks: Unicredit removes the right to work from home

The major bank's employees will no longer have the right to work from home in the future. Employee representatives speak of a unilateral decision and are announcing resistance.

Rome. The major Italian bank Unicredit is abolishing a regulation that gave employees the right to work from home. The move met with sharp criticism from employee representatives.

“Mobile working is not an automatic right for anyone,” says an internal memo from the Italian bank, seen by Bloomberg. “The office is our standard workplace.” Home office is therefore no longer possible as standard.

“We have expressed our complete opposition to this unilateral decision,” several unions said in a joint statement. The measure is “unacceptable – both in substance and in the way it is implemented”.

Globally, banks are withdrawing the liberal home office rules that were introduced during the Corona lockdowns around half a decade ago. The Norwegian DNB Bank and the French Natixis had already tightened their requirements this year.

This always causes tensions with employee representatives who have long been campaigning for more flexible working models. One example is Deutsche Bank, whose tightening of home office rules also caused outrage.

Unicredit's new rules apply immediately to executives and managers, and then to all other employees from January. Exceptions must be approved.

“Managers are expected to maintain a consistent presence in the workplace, while flexibility continues to be managed according to business and individual needs,” said a Unicredit spokeswoman.