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Broadcom sends its England-based staff back into office as UK lockdown eases – though Welsh workers get a free pass

'Split-shift model' to safely help 'critical infrastructure workforce' do its thing

Broadcom has sent staff back into corporate offices in England – though workers elsewhere in the UK can continue working remotely, a letter seen by The Register reveals.

An internal missive to staff stated that those in England are expected to join a socially distanced return to work this week while employees living in Wales are exempt.

Boasting about the chip company's role as "part of the essential critical infrastructure workforce" and UK staffers' contributions being "critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security", Broadcom told employees to head back into the office ASAP.

Those employees, we are told, include software developers, project managers and others who have been working remotely.

"England will return on May 26, 2020, given May 25th is a public holiday. This excludes those living in Wales and working in an office in England," said the letter to staff. This appears to be a reference to the Welsh Assembly deciding to continue the country's lockdown, deliberately distancing itself from England's plans to reopen high-street businesses.

Through a "split-shift model", Broadcom's British staff are being shunted back into their offices despite the rest of the nation still being locked down in their homes, aside from some arrogant ass who thinks rules are for the little people.

Broadcom's letter said, in part:

Broadcom remains committed to protecting the health and safety of our workers and will continue to take appropriate actions following direction from public health and government authorities. At the same time, we understand that Broadcom is part of the essential critical infrastructure workforce, and its employees and contractors perform duties needed to ensure the continuity of functions critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security. In support of this, Broadcom will be implementing a safe and orderly restart of on-site operations in the EMEA Region through the implementation of a split-shift model. This will enable us to achieve the best balance of our responsibilities to protect our employees, while also meeting our customers' and community's needs.

A quarter of each site's workers "will come on site for one out of every four weeks while the remainder of the workers work from home", with the on-site shift changing every week in what appears to be a one-on-three-off model.

"Although capping headcount at 25 per cent may not yield the same level of productivity that a full return by the workforce to the office would, this phased, floor-plan-based approach has been done to maximise worker safety while on site," concluded the staff missive.

Broadcom did not respond to a request for comment made days ago. Over in America, the chip flinger ordered its workers back to the office, mid-pandemic.

The semiconductor giant previously made headlines in April by boasting of increased demand for silicon-chip-based products during Q2 of its fiscal 2020, something Broadcom attributed to a lockdown-driven boost in homeworking, ironically enough. ®

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