UBS Group staff who don’t wish to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus can
“We have 25,000 employees alone in the U.S. and thousands more in Singapore and Hong Kong, and every country has a different legal framework around what you can and can’t make mandatory” with respect to vaccines, Hamers said at the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken on Thursday. “The pandemic has delivered solutions to manage the risk of carrying the virus and passing it to your colleagues, and that is to work from home.”
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As Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS has around 70,000 staff worldwide. While UBS has taken a gentler tone regarding the post-pandemic work arrangements than some of its rivals, the need for traders to be on-site means those workers are practically obliged to get jabbed to retain their roles.
Hamers said in July that traders are part of the “25% to one third” of the bank’s staff for whom it is “really difficult” to work from home. As governments struggle to encourage vaccine skeptics to take the shot, companies are increasingly using access to company premises as a clear incentive.
Staff, vendors and clients
Hamers underlined that most staff who choose non-vaccination do have the option of working remotely, most of the time.
“We have already identified two thirds of our jobs can continue to work from home and therefore we are developing a model of hybrid working,” he said. “There will be days where we want to come in and work in your teams physically.”