Workforce captured by artist met extraordinary abuse (12)
I believe the answer is:
mistreatment
'abuse' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'workforce captured by artist met extraordinary' is the wordplay.
'workforce' becomes 'men'.
'captured by' indicates putting letters inside.
'extraordinary' indicates an anagram.
'artist'+'met'='artistmet'
'artistmet' is an anagram of 'mistreatt'.
'men' going inside 'mistreatt' is 'MISTREATMENT'.
(Other definitions for mistreatment that I've seen before include "Cruel misuse" , "overrevving?" , "Abuse; bad handling" .)