NatWest sets two office days a week for all UK staff from 2027

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NatWest Group has told 13,000 of its employees that they will have to increase their office attendance from two days a month to two days a week. From February 2027, all of the bank's nearly 40,000 UK-based staff will follow a fixed schedule of at least two days a week in the office, which ends a remote-first arrangement for thousands of people.

The group operates under the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts brands. The 13,000 employees affected by the change work in areas including technology, security, data analytics and human resources, and according to the union Unite they include some of the bank's lowest-paid workers.

Different rules for different roles

Office expectations at the bank currently vary by job. Some staff, including traders, branch workers and relationship managers, are already required to be in the office four days a week. Others, such as communications, administrative and analytics employees, follow a hybrid schedule under which they attend six times a month. The new rule sets two days a week as the minimum for the whole UK workforce.

A NatWest spokesperson said flexible working remains an important part of how the bank works, but that it has learned more about the value of time spent together for colleagues and customers, including collaboration, sharing ideas, building relationships and learning from one another. The bank said it recognises the change will affect some colleagues and that it is giving them time to plan ahead and will support them through the transition.

Union opposition

Unite said the decision would add financial pressure on staff already dealing with rising living costs, increasing travel and childcare spending, and would undermine flexible arrangements for employees with caring responsibilities or disabilities. The union also said many workers had organised their lives around flexible working agreements that were expanded during the Covid pandemic. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the decision was "completely out of touch with the realities facing its workforce" and called on the bank to drop the proposals and engage with its staff.

The move follows similar steps at other banks. JP Morgan and Revolut have tightened remote working rules, citing the effect of remote work on the training of younger staff. Last month Barclays postponed its own plan to require at least three office days a week from early October, up from two, after a staff backlash backed by Unite, and allowed some employees to delay the requirement until next year.

Source: NatWest cracks down on 13,000 staff attending office two days a month