Thursday newspaper round-up: Ocado, City shutdown, insurers
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 24 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - Ocado could make up to 200 workers at its Hatfield call centre redundant as it shifts the roles to Sunderland in an apparent cost-cutting move at a time when the online grocer is recording record profits. One call centre worker involved in a 45-day redundancy consultation process which started this week described the cuts as "quite brutal" for staff who had worked throughout lockdown as Ocado responded to a huge surge in orders. - Guardian
A quarter of British pubs and restaurants fear collapse before Christmas without further government support, according to a wide-ranging survey that warns the pandemic could cost 675,000 jobs in the hospitality sector by February. As fresh analysis showed that more than £750m of late-night revenues could be affected by the imposition of a 10pm curfew in England, hospitality businesses said they have been "teetering on the edge" and now face the prospect of going under. - Guardian
Britain's biggest banks, law firms and accountants have cancelled plans to bring thousands of workers back to the office following new advice from ministers - dragging the City back into shutdown and sparking fresh fears for London's tottering economy. Some of the Square Mile's biggest businesses have said that staff should work from home again just weeks after beginning to reopen, as the rules are changed amid a resurgence in Covid infections. - Telegraph
The City watchdog is being urged to use its enforcement powers against one of Britain's best-known insurers to force the company to start making payouts to small businesses hit by the pandemic. Lawyers acting for a group of almost 400 firms want Hiscox, the FTSE 250 insurer, to start making interim payments to some of the companies after a High Court judgment last week. - The Times
Companies appear less prepared for the UK's pending departure from the European Union now than they were last year, a corporate lobby group said. Just 38 per cent of businesses have conducted a Brexit risk assessment in 2020, a poll of 527 companies by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found, as many prioritise grappling with the fallout from Covid-19.- The Times
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