By Natasha Lomas, 4 January 2008 15:06
NEWS
Brits clocked up a total of £25bn-worth of unpaid overtime in 2007, an increase on the year before and equivalent to almost £5,000 missing from each worker's pay packet.
Across the country, the number of employees working extra hours for nothing is close to five million, says the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
An extra 103,000 employees worked unpaid overtime in 2007 compared to 2006, bringing the total to almost one in five workers, according the TUC's analysis of government statistics. The average amount of unpaid overtime per person was slightly more than seven hours per week.
The regions where the most staff put in the most unpaid hours were the South East, where 890,000 clocked up extra time for nothing, and London (741,000).
Yorkshire & Humberside saw the steepest increase in numbers doing unpaid overtime. An extra 38,000 employees racked up unrewarded hours compared to last year, bringing its 2007 tally to 381,000.
The Eastern region of the country was not far behind, with an extra 37,000 workers subscribing to a long hours culture to make a total of 480,000 staff doing unpaid overtime.
The only regions where numbers fell were the East Midlands, where 57,000 fewer staff did free hard graft, and the North West and Merseyside, where numbers dropped by 41,000.
The regions where fewest staff worked unpaid overtime were Northern Ireland (74,000) and the North East (166,000).
The TUC said if workers in the UK who put in extra hours for nothing did all their unpaid work at the start of the year they would not be paid until 22 February - a date it has dubbed 'Work Your Proper Hours Day'. It added that employees who worked unpaid overtime last year missed out on an extra £4,955 in pay.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said workers in the UK are giving away too much for free to their employers - and should think how their time could be better spent with friends and family.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
all very well telling people to work their proper hours try doing it yourself first
promotions, training and pay rises will become scarcer than they are now for a start and should a situation arise where voluntary redundancies are being offered guess who will be among the first to be offered
there is a lot of pressure to work unpaid overtime, a lot of this stems from job security fears
2. Rafal
The best advice to all these overworked is to sue their employers on the termination of the employment to recover all those unpaid money...
3. anonymous
Ah well, that's why workers in times gone by organised themselves into unions. The main purpose of a union was to negotiate good working conditions, fair rates of pay and overtime on behalf of the workers they represented as well as provide legal support for individual workers who fell into dispute with their employers. However, over the last 1/4 century the press, the establishment and some unscrupulous half witted union leaders have misrepresented the fundamental aims of trade unions and fooled the general public into thinking they have nothing to offer workers except industrial unrest. To a certain extent that was probably true since unions tend to be conservative in nature resisting changes that they believe will be detrimental, not only to the workers they represent, but ultimately to themselves.
Be that as it may, a lot of people now work unnegotiated unpaid overtime in an attempt to outshine their colleagues and obtain that oh so desirable promotion or wage rise. But we’re now in the position where everyone is doing unpaid overtime and it becomes impossible to out shine anyone by being seen to be an AL. Now everyones an AL and working all the hours god sends without decent remuneration or recognition. Well, Hell mend you all!
I am not prepared to work unpaid over time even though my colleagues are.
Instead I go home at a reasonable time, I have my dinner and then I begin working my second job; well paid self employed work. You see I need the money I should otherwise earn doing overtime. I refuse to work for nothing on some vague promise that I will not be missed out at the next reshuffle or round of wage rises. I have been missed out too many times.