(Bloomberg) -- Many of the biggest banks and consultancies in the UK encouraged staff to head home early this week to avoid protests being planned across the country after similar actions morphed into violent riots in recent days.
Deutsche Bank AG has told UK managers to offer staffers flexibility to change their commute times to avoid the unrest, while NatWest Group Plc warned employees it may ask them to work from home if security concerns arise at specific locations, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information.
Deloitte LLP has told UK staffers it does not expect anyone to come into the office or meet with clients if they do not feel safe, some of the people said. London’s Pemberton Asset Management employees were told they could work with managers to arrange to work from home for the remainder of the week.
“We have heard a great deal of concern from colleagues across our firm, and we appreciate how unsettling these events can be,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives said in a memo to UK staffers seen by Bloomberg News.
Representatives for Deutsche Bank, NatWest, JPMorgan, Deloitte and Pemberton declined to comment.
Violent protests have engulfed some parts of England and Northern Ireland over the past week, fueled by online misinformation about the stabbing deaths of three young girls in Southport, a town located in northwest England. Almost 400 people have been arrested.
The grocer J Sainsbury Plc and cafe chain Greggs Plc are among the businesses hurt in the unrest, which has become Britain’s worst outbreak of rioting in more than a decade. The protests have been viewed as an early challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s month-old government.
--With assistance from Daniel Taub.
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