diff --git a/src/Services/QueuedJobService.php b/src/Services/QueuedJobService.php
index 27d528b1..0dabf713 100644
--- a/src/Services/QueuedJobService.php
+++ b/src/Services/QueuedJobService.php
@@ -124,6 +124,15 @@ class QueuedJobService
      */
     private static $worker_ttl = 'PT5M';
 
+    /**
+     * Duration for TTL of initialising state based on ISO 8601 duration specification.
+     * if a job is stuck in this state longer than this value it's considered stalled
+     *
+     * @var string
+     * @config
+     */
+    private static $initialising_state_ttl = 'PT2M';
+
     /**
      * Timestamp (in seconds) when the queue was started
      *
@@ -378,7 +387,7 @@ protected function copyDescriptorToJob($jobDescriptor, $job)
      *
      * @param string $type Job type
      *
-     * @return QueuedJobDescriptor|false
+     * @return QueuedJobDescriptor|null
      */
     public function getNextPendingJob($type = null)
     {
@@ -425,6 +434,7 @@ public function getNextPendingJob($type = null)
      *
      * @param int $queue The queue to check against
      * @return array stalled job and broken job IDs
+     * @throws Exception
      */
     public function checkJobHealth($queue = null)
     {
@@ -443,13 +453,19 @@ public function checkJobHealth($queue = null)
         // If no steps have been processed since the last run, consider it a broken job
         // Only check jobs that have been viewed before. LastProcessedCount defaults to -1 on new jobs.
         // Only check jobs that are past expiry to ensure another process isn't currently executing the job
-        $now = DBDatetime::now()->Rfc2822();
         $stalledJobs = $runningJobs
             ->filter([
                 'LastProcessedCount:GreaterThanOrEqual' => 0,
-                'Expiry:LessThanOrEqual' => $now,
             ])
-            ->where('"StepsProcessed" = "LastProcessedCount"');
+            ->where('"StepsProcessed" = "LastProcessedCount"')
+            ->whereAny([
+                // either job lock is expired
+                '"Expiry" <= ?' => DBDatetime::now()->Rfc2822(),
+                // or job lock was never assigned (maybe there were not enough server resources to kick off the process)
+                // fall back to LastEdited time and only restart those jobs that were left untouched for a small while
+                // this covers the situation where a process is still going to pick up the job
+                '"Expiry" IS NULL AND "LastEdited" <= ?' => $this->getInitStateExpiry()
+            ]);
 
         /** @var QueuedJobDescriptor $stalledJob */
         foreach ($stalledJobs as $stalledJob) {
@@ -596,8 +612,7 @@ public function checkDefaultJobs($queue = null)
      */
     protected function restartStalledJob($stalledJob)
     {
-        // release job lock on the descriptor so it can run again
-        $stalledJob->Worker = null;
+        $this->releaseJobLock($stalledJob);
 
         if ($stalledJob->ResumeCounts < static::config()->get('stall_threshold')) {
             $stalledJob->restart();
@@ -921,6 +936,7 @@ public function runJob($jobId)
                             ));
                             if ($jobDescriptor->JobStatus != QueuedJob::STATUS_BROKEN) {
                                 $jobDescriptor->JobStatus = QueuedJob::STATUS_WAIT;
+                                $this->releaseJobLock($jobDescriptor);
                             }
                             $broken = true;
                         }
@@ -933,6 +949,7 @@ public function runJob($jobId)
                             ));
                             if ($jobDescriptor->JobStatus != QueuedJob::STATUS_BROKEN) {
                                 $jobDescriptor->JobStatus = QueuedJob::STATUS_WAIT;
+                                $this->releaseJobLock($jobDescriptor);
                             }
                             $broken = true;
                         }
@@ -1414,6 +1431,29 @@ protected function getWorkerExpiry(): string
         return $expiry->Rfc2822();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Get expiry time for a INIT state of a queued job
+     * this helps to identify jobs that have stalled more accurately
+     *
+     * @return string
+     * @throws Exception
+     */
+    protected function getInitStateExpiry(): string
+    {
+        $now = DBDatetime::now()->Rfc2822();
+        $time = new DateTime($now);
+        $timeToLive = $this->config()->get('initialising_state_ttl');
+
+        if ($timeToLive) {
+            $time->sub(new DateInterval($timeToLive));
+        }
+
+        /** @var DBDatetime $expiry */
+        $expiry = DBField::create_field('Datetime', $time->getTimestamp());
+
+        return $expiry->Rfc2822();
+    }
+
     /**
      * Add job-specific logger functionality which has the ability to flush logs into
      * the job descriptor database record. Based on the default logger set for this class,
@@ -1459,6 +1499,16 @@ private function addJobHandlersToLogger(LoggerInterface $logger, QueuedJob $job,
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Release job lock on the descriptor so it can run again
+     *
+     * @param QueuedJobDescriptor $descriptor
+     */
+    protected function releaseJobLock(QueuedJobDescriptor $descriptor): void
+    {
+        $descriptor->Worker = null;
+    }
+
     /**
      * @return string
      */
diff --git a/tests/QueuedJobsTest.php b/tests/QueuedJobsTest.php
index 9cf21066..6fb2f207 100644
--- a/tests/QueuedJobsTest.php
+++ b/tests/QueuedJobsTest.php
@@ -493,6 +493,38 @@ public function testJobHealthCheck()
         );
     }
 
+    public function testJobHealthCheckForStuckInitJobs()
+    {
+        $svc = $this->getService();
+        $logger = $svc->getLogger();
+        $job = new TestQueuedJob(QueuedJob::IMMEDIATE);
+        $id = $svc->queueJob($job);
+
+        /** @var QueuedJobDescriptor $descriptor */
+        $descriptor = QueuedJobDescriptor::get()->byID($id);
+
+        // Kick off job processing - this is before job has a worker allocated
+        DBDatetime::set_mock_now('2017-01-01 16:00:00');
+        $descriptor->JobStatus = QueuedJob::STATUS_INIT;
+        $descriptor->LastProcessedCount = 0;
+        $descriptor->StepsProcessed = 0;
+        $descriptor->write();
+
+        // Check that valid jobs are left untouched
+        DBDatetime::set_mock_now('2017-01-01 16:01:59');
+        $svc->checkJobHealth(QueuedJob::IMMEDIATE);
+
+        $descriptor = QueuedJobDescriptor::get()->byID($id);
+        $this->assertEquals(QueuedJob::STATUS_INIT, $descriptor->JobStatus);
+
+        // Check that init jobs which are considered stuck are handled
+        DBDatetime::set_mock_now('2017-01-01 16:02:00');
+        $svc->checkJobHealth(QueuedJob::IMMEDIATE);
+
+        $descriptor = QueuedJobDescriptor::get()->byID($id);
+        $this->assertEquals(QueuedJob::STATUS_WAIT, $descriptor->JobStatus);
+    }
+
     public function testExceptionWithMemoryExhaustion()
     {
         $svc = $this->getService();