NAB shuts two Melbourne offices amid fresh COVID-19 spike

NAB has become the first big business to shut Melbourne CBD offices amid a fresh spike in coronavirus infections.

National Australia Bank is sending Melbourne staff home from its 700 and 800 Bourke Street buildings.

NAB has become the first big business to shut two CBD offices amid a fresh spike in coronavirus infections and as companies look to dramatically reshape their footprints as working from home becomes the new normal.

NAB will mothball two of its three Melbourne offices – 700 and 800 Bourke Street – and consolidate its workers who aren’t working from home at 500 Bourke Street.

Its offices in other Australian capital cities will remain open. NAB group executive people and culture, Susan Ferrier said the Melbourne office closures were temporary and were a direct result of a fresh spike in COVID-19 infections in the Victorian capital.

It comes as most CBD workers were preparing to return to the office this month. But Victoria has become Australia’s coronavirus epicentre, recording 73 new infections on Wednesday, triggering the lockdown of 10 northern and western Melbourne postcodes.

Premier Daniel Andrews revealed genomic sequencing had linked a large proportion of the state’s spike of new cases to infection control breaches in Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, admitting there had “clearly” been a “failure”.

Victoria now has 370 active COVID-19 infections. Three new positive cases are linked to cases associated with Hugo Boss in Collins Street, Melbourne. The store has been cleaned and further contact tracing is under way. Previously two staff members and a close contact had been identified as being part of this cluster, taking the total number of cases in the outbreak to six. An SBS radio worker has also been infected prompting the closure of the broadcaster’s Melbourne headquarters in Federation Square.

The fresh spike is a massive setback for office workers. The Victorian government was planning a phased return to work for CBD offices, starting from July. But now that has been pushed back to the end of the calendar year.

Companies are already reviewing their use of office space, which is among the biggest costs of running a business next to staffing. NAB announced on Wednesday it would close two of its Melbourne offices from July 14.

“Due to the current spike in COVID-19 numbers in Victoria and continued advice from government to stay home, the number of NAB colleagues returning to our corporate offices remains very low,” Ms Ferrier said.

“Our Melbourne-based workforce who need to be in the office, will all work from 500 Bourke Street.”

In a letter to neighbouring cafes and small businesses in Docklands, Ms Ferrier said the bank had been a “proud part of the Docklands community for the past 16 years”.

“We appreciate this is a difficult time for many small businesses and recognise the business that NAB colleagues bring to the Docklands precinct.

“I want to emphasise that these changes are temporary and will be regularly reviewed. We will continue to update you about when and how our colleagues return to work in the office.”

A spokesman for rival and fellow Melbourne-headquartered bank, ANZ said the company had not mothballed any of its Melbourne offices as a result of the pandemic.

ANZ has been consolidating its Melbourne offices in recent years, with most of its staff normally based at its two buildings in Docklands.

Ahmed Fahour, chief executive of Latitude Financial, which is also headquartered in Docklands, told The Australian last week that the company would not renew leases at satellite offices in Parramatta and Springfield in Brisbane.

“Every leader will need to start thinking about not just work from home as a temporary thing. Work from home is a permanent fixture now of how to think about leadership,” Mr Fahour said.

“Office buildings will become more like a hub where you need to come in for some training or some office meetings where you can only have a small group of people. So it’s more like a landing hub rather than coming into work like you always did taking public transport etc.”

Telstra, which is also headquartered in Melbourne, is keeping its six offices in the city’s CBD running but a spokesman said most people were working from home.

“Since mid-March our office-based teams have been working from home, with some limited exemptions for people who require access to the workplace. Our approach has not changed and the majority of our employees who can do so will continue working from home,” the Telstra spokesman said.

Discount department store chain Big W has told its suppliers to stay clear from its stores within the lockdown postcodes in Melbourne – Broadmeadows, Watergardens, Craigieburn and Highpoint.

“We would ask that you ensure no merchandisers or team members in a work capacity visit any of the four Big W stores in the impacted suburbs,” Big W general manager commercial, Teresa Rendo said in a letter to suppliers.

“Please ensure your team is familiar with the government guidelines regarding the management of the coronavirus and if one of your team members is feeling unwell, we ask you to request they stay at home until they feel better.”