By Ross Kerber
BOSTON (Reuters) -Fidelity Investments on Monday said it has paused voluntary return-to-office plans for employees in New England, citing a rising risk from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesman for the family-controlled company said it has paused “pilot” return to office programs at its offices in Boston, in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and Merrimack, New Hampshire “due to rising COVID risk scores.”
The spokesman, Michael Aalto, said several hundred people had been going in to those locations, the center of gravity of the Boston-headquartered firm. Voluntary pilots representing thousands of employees are still under way at other locations around the United States, he said.
In all Fidelity has about 52,0000 employees, mostly in the United States.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston. Additional reporting by Gary McWilliams in Houston. Editing by Franklin Paul and Howard Goller)
