Office occupancy across 10 major US cities crossed 50.4% of pre-pandemic levels for the first time since early 2020, according to security swipe tracker Kastle Systems. That marks the first time occupancy has crossed the 50% mark since March 2020, when many offices sent workers home because of Covid. Workers still aren’t coming back to the office consistently or every day: Last week’s data showed that Friday was the lowest day of occupancy and Tuesday was the highest.
The contractors work for a third-party company called Cognizant, and they are calling for the firm and YouTube-parent Google to revise the in-office policies to be more flexible. The strike was first reported by Axios, which said the contractors voted to strike after receiving orders to report to an office in Austin starting on Monday. Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.