Brazil’s Largest Bank Itaú Tests Limits of Remote-Work Surveillance With Mass Layoffs

Brazil’s largest private bank, Itaú Unibanco, has dismissed about 1,000 employees in São Paulo after tracking their digital activity during remote and hybrid work. The São Paulo Bank Workers’ Union says nearly all of those affected worked under flexible arrangements.

The union has filed a collective lawsuit, arguing the bank did not follow proper labor rules or disclose how the monitoring system worked. Itaú has confirmed monitoring but has not published an official number of layoffs.

The bank’s last SEC filing shows a global workforce of 96,219 at the end of 2024, with 86,228 employees in Brazil. The union’s estimate of 1,000 cuts equals just over 1% of Itaú’s total staff.

Even at that scale, the dismissals highlight the sharp tension between management and employees in Brazil’s banking sector, where about 70% of office-based staff work partly remote, according to the national banking federation Febraban.

Itaú justified its actions by pointing to what it called “low digital activity.” The bank said some staff logged only 20% of expected screen time, compared with an average of 75% across the workforce.

Monitoring software recorded keyboard clicks and screen use to measure presence during shifts. The union argues that this metric ignores real work, such as analyzing data, calls, and project tasks that do not show up in system logs.

The case has sparked anger among workers. Union leaders argue the bank failed to warn employees or provide access to the monitoring results before dismissals. The dispute also raises questions about Brazil’s collective bargaining framework.

Febraban’s 2024–2026 agreement with unions outlines how large staffing changes should be negotiated, and labor groups say Itaú bypassed those rules. The story behind the story is about how trust and measurement collide in hybrid work.

For Itaú’s managers, software data looked like hard evidence of inactivity. For employees, that same data ignored real contributions. This clash has turned into a test case for how far companies can go in monitoring staff outside the office.

The outcome matters beyond Brazil. Hybrid work is now common worldwide, and employers everywhere are searching for ways to measure productivity.

Itaú’s decision shows the risks: legal challenges, reputational damage, and the possibility that strict digital tracking discourages skilled employees.

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