TSB staff prepare tribunal action over Santander's three-day office mandate

The TBU union, which represents around 5,000 TSB staff, is preparing Employment Tribunal claims over the requirement that employees attend the office three days a week from April 2027. The mandate follows Santander UK’s £2.65bn takeover of TSB, and the union says some members cannot comply for health or family reasons. The Telegraph reported the preparations on 30 July, with corroborating coverage from Personnel Today and The Banker.

Employment lawyers quoted in the coverage warn that one-size-fits-all attendance mandates carry genuine legal exposure in the UK. Applying a blanket rule to staff with disabilities, health conditions or caring responsibilities risks Equality Act discrimination claims, and mishandling requests under the statutory flexible-working procedure creates a separate route to tribunal.

Why this matters

This is shaping up as a live test case for how enforceable return-to-office mandates are in the UK. If tribunal claims proceed and succeed, large employers will need individualised assessment rather than blanket attendance rules – which strengthens the negotiating position of any UK employee whose remote or hybrid arrangement is under threat. If you are facing a mandate you cannot comply with, the statutory flexible-working request procedure and, where relevant, disability-related adjustments are the mechanisms to know about before April 2027 arrives.

Context

The dispute comes amid a broader UK employment-law shift: the Employment Rights Act 2025 implementation timeline (updated 7 August) moves flexible-working measures to 2027 and cuts the unfair-dismissal qualifying period to six months from January 2027, while the government’s response to its flexible working consultation remains unpublished. UK employers pressing attendance mandates are doing so just as the legal ground tilts towards employees.