More than 250 of the UK's biggest employers have signed up to a taskforce aimed at tackling the £212bn-a-year cost of long-term sickness absence — a problem the former John Lewis chair Sir Charlie Mayfield has described as 'growth hiding in plain sight'.
British Airways, Tesco, Royal Mail, and several government departments are among those joining the Get Britain Working taskforce, which seeks to prevent people dropping out of work due to ill-health and encourage those signed off to return. Sainsbury's, EDF Energy, and Currys have also signed up, alongside 10 mayoral authorities including London and Manchester.
“Over 250 employers join Sir Charlie Mayfield's taskforce to tackle long-term illness unemployment, which costs UK £212bn a year.”
The initiative will require companies to track sickness absence, return-to-work outcomes, and disability participation — data the government says will make workplace health performance visible for the first time.
Sir Charlie told the BBC that too many employees are left孤立 after falling ill. 'I can't tell you how many people I've met who said: "I was signed off work for three months, or six months, and I never had any contact with my employer at all,"' he said. 'That's not because the employer is a bad person. It's because we've got a situation at the minute where people don't talk to each other when they really need to.'
His comments come as pressure mounts on Andy Burnham, widely expected to become prime minister later this month, to reduce the UK's welfare bill. Total welfare spending in Great Britain is forecast to account for 23.6% of government spending in the 2025-26 financial year.
Sir Charlie said his plans could help cut that bill. 'Fixing these problems at the fundamental level, could make a really big contribution to getting this economy working better — for employers, for employees, for the taxpayer, for all of us,' he said. 'This is not a zero-sum game. It's not a question of employers win and employees lose and vice versa. Everybody can win.'
He suggested Burnham would back the plans. 'I can't see any reason why he wouldn't because of what Andy has said about good growth. If this isn't good growth, I'm not sure what is, quite frankly.'
The taskforce's approach, Sir Charlie argued, requires no new housing, immigration, or waiting for new workers. 'You wouldn't have had to build a single house, open a new channel of immigration, you wouldn't have to wait for a cohort of young people to join the workplace. This is basically growth hiding in plain sight.'
Some employers have previously warned that tax rises mean many firms cannot afford to invest in workplace health, while others cautioned against pushing ill people back into work. The taskforce will now aim to prove that better communication and tracking can square that circle.