More than 250 of Britain’s biggest employers, including British Airways, Tesco and Royal Mail, have signed up to a new task force led by Sir Charlie Mayfield aimed at stemming the flow of workers out of the labor market due to illness, a problem which costs the government £212bn a year.
Former chairman John Lewis, whose review of Keep Britain Working exposed the scale of Britain’s sickness crisis last year, said tackling long-term sickness-related unemployment would unlock “hidden in plain sight” economic growth.
His Get Britain Working group, which counts Sainsbury’s, EDF Energy, Currys and several government departments among its members, has two aims: to prevent people from losing their jobs due to illness in the first place, and to encourage those who have already signed up to return.
Each company involved will track sickness absence, return-to-work outcomes and disability participation, data the government says will make occupational health performance visible for the first time. Ten local authorities, including London and Manchester, have also agreed to take part.
Intervention comes with the most obvious human cost of the problem. According to the Office for National Statistics, an estimated 148.8 million working days were lost due to illness or injury last year, while UK sick days have reached a 15-year high, and mental illness is now the leading cause of long-term absence.
Sir Charlie told the BBC that communication breakdowns between employers and absent workers were at the heart of the problem.
“I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who say: ‘I was laid off for three months, or six months, and I never contacted my employer at all,'” he said. “That’s not because the employer is a bad person, it’s because we’ve had a situation where people don’t talk to each other when they really need to.”
Not everyone is convinced. Some employers have warned that recent tax increases leave many firms without offices to invest in workplace health, while health experts have warned that small businesses in particular lack the tools and resources to manage employee health strategically. Others have expressed concern about the pressure being put on people who are seriously ill to return to work.
Sir Charlie’s comments also come at a politically charged time, as pressure mounts on Andy Burnham, who is expected to become prime minister at the end of this month, to take part in the welfare forecast which will account for 23.6 per cent of total government spending in the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
Sir Charlie said his plans, built on the recommendations of a government-mandated review he published last year, could help reduce that bill.
“Fixing these issues at the grassroots level can really make a big contribution to making this economy work better, for employers, for workers, for taxpayers, for all of us,” he said. “This is not a zero-sum game. It’s not a question of employers winning and workers losing and vice versa. Everyone can win.”
He suggested that Burnham would support this plan. “I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t because of what Andy said about positive growth. If this isn’t positive growth, I’m not sure what is, frankly.”
For Sir Charlie, the math is simple. Bringing those who are currently unemployed due to illness back into the labor market will improve the labor force outside of normal trade.
“You wouldn’t need to build one house, open a new route for immigrants, you wouldn’t wait for a group of young people to enter the workforce,” he said. “This growth is clearly hidden.”
