While historically an industrial powerhouse, Manchester has, like most cities across the UK since the 2008 financial crash, struggled with increasingly precarious, low-paid and inaccessible work.

The Good Employment Charter was developed to counter this. By raising standards of employment across all sectors, regardless of organisation size, the Charter has kickstarted a rising trend where people at work in the Greater Manchester region are paid fairly for their work, treated appropriately and where inclusion at work is so much more than a nice-to-have buzzword.

In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Ian MacArthur, Director of the Charter’s Implementation Unit. He shares the origins of the Charter and dives into the role of access to good work in a healthy, well-functioning society.

Takeaways

• The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter addresses the challenges of the current labour market, focusing on health, wellbeing, and inequality.

About Ian MacArthur

An exiled Scotsman, Ian has spent his career working on environmental and public health issues - and the socioeconomic policies that underpin them - from community to international levels.

Starting his career as an environmental health officer with Carlisle City Council, he has worked for Edinburgh City Council, the Health and Safety Executive, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, The World Health Organisation, the UK Public Health Association, Groundwork UK and STaR Procurement.

More recently he led the GC Business Growth Hub’s priority sector development and relationship management activities, before becoming the Director of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter -a key Mayoral priority initiative established in 2019.