Amazon criticised by Business Secretary for ordering staff back to the office

Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary has criticised Amazon’s decision to order staff back into the office five days per week.

The Cabinet minister defended employers who allowed people to work from home, including staff in his own department, insisting workers should be judged “by their output, not whether they are sat at a desk”.

It comes as Labour prepares to introduce an Employment Rights Bill next month.

Flexible working will become a default right for staff from day one, with employers only able to refuse if working from home is not practical.

Ministers have insisted that the changes will help to boost Britain’s economy, claiming flexible working boosts productivity.

However, the measures come as some of the world’s biggest technology companies, including $2 trillion online retail giant Amazon, demand white-collar workers come back to the office for the whole working week.

Asked what Amazon was “getting wrong” on LBC, Mr Reynolds said: “If I was talking to a business like that I would say every piece of evidence that has ever been collated suggests that flexibility, when agreed between employer and employee, is good for productivity, is good for staff resilience.”

He added: “You retain your staff longer, you get more out of them.”

The remarks come after Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, on Monday declared that from Jan 2 staff would all be expected back at the office five days per week.

Mr Jassy said: “Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward – our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances.”

The tech giant has struggled to force more staff to return to the office after embracing working from home during the pandemic. In February 2023, it attempted to cajole more staff into the office, by insisting they should come in three days per week.

In the blog, Mr Jassy added: “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant.”

He said being in the office was better for collaboration, generating ideas and learning.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment beyond Mr Jassy’s remarks.

Asked about how many staff in the Business Department were attending the office, Mr Reynolds said: “All I care about are the job and [that] are they delivering for me. Everything I have seen in the two months to date is they are doing so.”

He added: “I care about are they doing the job for me, not the location they are in.” Although he said: “Of course there will be different arrangements for different sectors.”