The UK’s workforce health crisis, with long-term sickness now keeping almost 3 million people out of work, costs the economy up to £85 billion a year. Led by Professor Sir Cary Cooper, participants agreed that employee wellbeing can no longer be treated as a peripheral initiative but must be embedded into organisational systems, cultures, and expectations, and be treated as a fundamental part of business strategy.

As the Employment Rights Bill nears Royal Assent, this parliamentary roundtable examined what its reforms would mean for employers, workers, and policymakers across the UK. Representing the most comprehensive overhaul of employment law in a generation, these reforms promise to strengthen workplace protections, introducing day-one rights against unfair dismissal, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, and establishing a new Fair Work Agency to enhance enforcement.

Building on a timely and deeply relevant issue, participants examined the systemic roots of workplace bullying, from toxic leadership and power imbalances to the breakdown of formal redress mechanisms. They emphasised how traditional grievance processes can often compound harm, underscoring the need for more human-centred, restorative approaches. This session forms part of the PLG on Workplace Wellbeing’s wider effort to develop a framework grounded in lived experience, with care, dignity, and psychological safety at its core.

Participants discussed how flexible working has become the norm for millions, now ranking above pay as the top priority in job searches. Yet policy and workplace practice remain slow to adapt. The Employment Rights Bill would require employers to justify refusals of flexible arrangements, such as compressed hours or a four-day week. Opening the session, Peter Dowd MP said his amendment aimed to spark debate. Participants agreed the main barriers are cultural, not evidential, and lie in management practices.

The discussion laid bare the human and economic cost of continuing to treat women’s health as a private issue rather than a structural and cultural one. With women leaving the workforce, missing out on progression, or suffering in silence, action is needed to embed inclusive, gender-sensitive policies, equip line managers with the tools to support wellbeing, and make women’s health a shared responsibility across every level of leadership.

At this roundtable, experts from public health, academia, policy, and business provided key insights on improving workplace mental health, reducing inequalities, and embedding wellbeing into business strategy. A clear message emerged: “People are not a cost — they are an investment.”

Participants discussed how policy changes could help employers support financial resilience, highlighting regulatory barriers like minimum wage compliance that limit workplace savings initiatives. They explored reforms for greater payroll-based savings flexibility and emphasised integrating financial wellbeing into workplace policies. The meeting aligned with the Department for Work and Pensions’ Get Britain Working green paper, reinforcing the role of employers in financial and mental wellbeing.

The roundtable focused on aligning workplace wellbeing with economic growth and other government missions and agendas, including the Make Work Pay Plan and the Employment Rights Bill.