TUC, CBI and BT to speak at the Work Wise UK Summit

The director general of the CBI, the secretary general of the TUC and the chairman of BT are three of the keynote speakers at a summit on May 3 which launches Work Wise UK.

The three-year, not-for-profit campaign aims to make the UK the most progressive economy in the world by encouraging widespread adoption of smarter working practices, such as flexible working, remote working and working from home, all promoting a sensible work life balance.

The Work Wise UK Summit will be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminister, with an invited audience of 400 policy advisers and key influencers from both the public and private sectors.

Chaired by Declan Curry, business presenter for BBC Breakfast, it will set out the objectives of the initiative and ignite discussion on the benefits of adopting smarter working practices and how a more modern and flexible approach will increase business productivity and competitiveness, reduce transport congestion and pollution, improve health, assist disadvantaged groups and harmonise our work and family commitments.

Today, the UK’s average working week is among the highest in Europe, with nearly five million employees working on average an extra day a week. One in six employees works more than 60 hours a week, as opposed to one in eight in 2000. The UK also boasts the highest commuter times, on average seven hours per week (Samsung research 2004), the equivalent of 47 additional working days per year, which is almost double the time spent by Swedish workers who spend less than four hours per week travelling to and from work.

Speakers at the conference include:
- Sir Digby Jones, Director General, CBI
- Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman, BT
- Brendan Barber, General Secretary, TUC
- Chris McCarthy, Executive Director for Sustainable Development, Surrey County Council.

Work Wise UK is organised by the IT Forum Foundation in association with BT and is supported by the British Chambers of Commerce, the CBI, The Future Work Forum (Henley Management College) and the TUC.