Clare McNeil

Why healthy job design is critical to tackling economic inactivity - Timewise This paper shows how insecure, inflexible and excessive hours in frontline sectors exacerbate the UK’s economic inactivity problem – and what to do about it.

Read our report: Healthy by Design? Why better jobs for all should be a goal for UK industrial policy timewise.co.uk/article/why-...

Ahead of the Sir Charlie Mayfield Review @timewise.bsky.social is calling for a £500m Frontline Workplace Innovation Fund offering conditional support for employers in return for achieving targets for reducing staff turnover and sickness rates and improving job retention.

The bottom line is we won't raise workforce participation unless govt works in partnership with employers in our everyday service sector economy to unlock more suitable jobs.

Sick who go back to work end up in low-paid, physically tough jobs Only a tiny fraction of economically inactive find a job each year, and it is often an unsuitable role where they can only last a few months, research shows

Great to see @thetimes.com cover @timewise.bsky.social new report out today:

“Pushing people into insecure, physical, inflexible work when they are already challenged by disability or mental health problems is futile – these jobs don’t work and they don’t last".

www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

quote that reads: Even with the reduced competition, though, the negotiation of a living wage was only possible thanks to the power that trade unions wielded at the time. In the decades after World War II, roughly one in three U.S. workers were union members, compared to only about one in ten today. Unions helped increase manufacturing wages and reduce wage gaps between front-line workers, managers, and CEOs. They also helped create and maintain other employment protections, like 40-hour workweeks, health insurance, and defined-benefit pensions that guaranteed a steady income even after workers retired.

The nostalgia for manufacturing overlooks what truly built economic security: labor power, progressive taxation, and social policy.

As fellow @jessicacalarco.bsky.social reminds us, the “good life” wasn’t caused by manufacturing—and it wasn’t accessible to all. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

A huge thanks to all those who attended, Sharon Foxwell and Dr. Katie Perry for sharing their powerful stories and to
#PhoenixInsights for their support on our joint #PartTimeWorks campaign

Given the scale & urgency of the challenge, there's a need for far greater coordination across DWP and the Sir Charlie Mayfield Review, DBT and the implementation of the Employment Rights Bill, and DHSC to improve working conditions in these sectors.

- Depression and anxiety are now the leading cause of sickness absence - causing 55% of working days lost due to work-related ill health.
- Workers in sectors like transport and storage, construction, commerce and hospitality (around a quarter of the workforce) are worst affected

We hosted Professor Paul Gregg, Chair of the DWP Labour Market Advisory Board @timewise.bsky.social

There’s a real chance of a doubling of those on incapacity benefit over the next 15 years.

More autonomy, control & flexibility at work is key to preventing this: timewise.co.uk/article/endi...

Thanks for sharing this @workfoundation.bsky.social!
#two-tierworkforce

Lack of flexibility for frontline workers creating ‘two-tier workforce’, report reveals Experts highlight ‘longstanding pattern of inequity’ and urge employers to facilitate options including part time, job shares and annualised or compressed hours

Delighted to be People Management Magazine's top story www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1904...

#EndTwoTierWorkforce
@financialfairness.bsky.social

Inequality in flexible working dividing Britain into ‘two-tier workforce’ Exclusive: Office workers have more flexibility than frontline staff such as nurses and shop workers, report says

@timewise.bsky.social NEW report exclusively in @theguardian.com today finds there is a growing ‘two-tier’ workforce in the UK.

👉 We set out recommendations for how more frontline workers can experience autonomy, work-life balance, dignity & control at work.

www.theguardian.com/money/2025/j...