HONG KONG (Reuters) -Banks in Hong Kong together with HSBC Holdings Plc and UBS Group AG are taking steps to scale back the variety of individuals on the office after having operated at close to full capability for the previous few months, as the town faces a spike in COVID-19 instances.
HSBC, which is among the greatest employers in Hong Kong with about 30,000 individuals, will preserve a most of fifty% employees occupancy in its places of work from Friday, in accordance with an inner memo seen by Reuters. A spokesperson for HSBC confirmed the memo’s content material.
Financial institution of America has inspired its employees to work at home from Jan. 7-24, in accordance with the U.S. financial institution’s inner memo seen by Reuters. A financial institution spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo that was despatched on Thursday.
Earlier, UBS mentioned in a memo to employees that it might cut up its 2,500 Hong Kong workforce into two teams, with every returning to the office on alternate weeks.
The strikes come amid worries of a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections within the Asian monetary hub. Hong Kong has introduced a two-week ban on some inbound flights, slapped curbs on indoor eating and closed swimming swimming pools, bars and different venues.
Town recorded 38 new coronavirus instances on Wednesday right here.
Workers at HSBC and UBS have been advised to minimise cross ground journey of their places of work and to not socialise with members not in their very own group, in accordance with the memos.
HSBC, UBS and Financial institution of America additionally mentioned employees needed to put on masks when not at their desks, in accordance with their memos.
Customary Chartered divided its 6,000 workforce right here into groups earlier this week.
Monetary establishments in Hong Kong have been working at virtually full capability for the previous few months, not like most different main centres like New York or London, as the town caught to a zero-COVID technique by largely isolating itself from the world.
On Dec. 31, a streak of three months with out neighborhood instances ended with the primary native transmission of the Omicron variant.
Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Enhancing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill
