Legal & General addresses health outcomes for hidden workers as it commits to tackle health inequality in the UK

• Legal & General is driving change in the real estate industry as it commits to introducing sick pay policies, death in service benefit and access to virtual healthcare services for hidden workers across its extensive owned and operated real estate portfolio
• Legal & General calls on the real estate industry to do the same, seeking to standardise the sector’s commitments to hidden workers
• Legal & General is engaging with its supply chain partners to close the health and wellbeing gap and improve the daily lives of hidden workers across the UK

These commitments were made following research commissioned by Legal & General, in partnership with the charity Tavistock Relationships, to uncover health inequality in businesses across the UK.  Tavistock Relationships research, titled ‘Working Well: Delivering Better Outcomes for Hidden Workers’, calls on business to help tackle health inequality, proactively addressing the health and wellbeing gap across the UK.  This research builds on L&G’s long-term partnership with Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the University College of London (UCL) Institute of Health Equity (IHE) and professor of epidemiology to examine how improvements to the design and construction of towns and cities can help to address health inequalities and support “levelling up” across the UK’s regions

Through consultation with its supply chain partners and a review of its existing arrangements, Legal & General has committed to the following changes:

1. Introduce sick pay policies, without waiting days (currently 3 days until Statutory Sick Pay starts) and at same level as standard pay
2. All workers will have access to virtual healthcare services (including GP appointments), using appropriate IT equipment to conduct the appointment in a quiet, private space
3. Death in service benefit as standard

Legal & General has committed that by the end of 2023, more than 90 percent (by value) of its supply chain, that’s over 500 directly managed real estate assets will be compliant with the new policies, and by 2024 it will have achieved 100% compliance. 

Legal & General calls on the real estate industry to proactively drive change, engage with supply chains and implement similar standards across its workforce.

Leveraging research to inform better health outcomes

Working Well: Delivering Better Outcomes for Hidden Workers is based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of ‘hidden workers’, with 88 workers contributing to the research findings. The interviewees and focus group participants worked in a range of different sectors but predominantly in cleaning and housekeeping, catering and security.

Overall, the report found that a variety of factors affected workers’ physical and mental health, with key findings including:

• More than half of respondents worked nine hours a day, and a third of this group worked 11 hours or more a day. This had a direct impact on mental and physical health and on their relationships with partners, children, and their wider families and communities.
• Many workers do not receive pay if they attend a hospital, GP of other health appointment. Fear of losing pay or appearing weak or unreliable prevents them from asking for time off to look after their health.
• Very few respondents had accessed counselling or advice services, and were unaware of how they could access these services if they wanted to do so.

Legal & General is committed to providing vital research into the role of businesses and employers in tackling health inequality, by addressing the environmental and social factors which can lead to improved long-term outcomes.

Legal & General supply chain engagement

Legal & General’s investment management business (LGIM), which consists of 450 directly managed properties in the UK, has procured £5 million per annum of security and cleaning contracts in 2022 in line with these commitments. Moreover, L&G’s Facilities Management provider, Mitie, has committed to implementing these changes. By the end of 2023, L&G anticipates that 90 percent of its supply chain partners will have adopted these new policies across Group.

Legal & General has already engaged with its supply chain partners and the following companies have signed up to deliver the commitments devised by L&G in 2023: Andron; Aston Services Group; Bellrock; Churchill; G4S; Portico; Regular Cleaning Services and Wilson James.