Time to rebel against long unpaid hours

Hard-working UK employees are being urged to protest against long hours and unpaid overtime by taking the controversial action of actually working only their contracted hours this Friday.

While most workers in the UK sign a contract that would have them work around eight hours per day, in reality most are doing far more than that. Unsurprisingly, techies are among the hardest hit by this problem - working an average 9.3 unpaid hours per week on top of their contracted hours, according to TUC research.

This figure equates to almost 450 unpaid hours per year. For somebody on a wage of £25,000 this would be worth an extra £5,800 per year.

But it's not just a sense of being hard-done-by financially that put-upon workers are experiencing - for some it is even affecting their health.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "TUC research shows that the general increase in workloads is a major factor in the increase in workplace stress."

And the reasons we find ourselves in this position include "under-staffing, over-loading, bad management and a lack of training for the job", according to Barber.

Many companies are also failing to replace staff shelved during the downturn - thinking that if 100 people now do the job 200 used to then why pay the extra wages - even if those 100 staff are burning themselves out trying to keep up.

And the picture of mismanagement stretches beyond staffing levels.

Barber said: "Managers expect more from staff but have not invested the resources in training or equipment for staff to be able to cope with their work comfortably."

For these reasons the TUC is urging workers to only do their contracted hours this Friday in order to highlight the extent to which they are giving 'something for nothing' to their employers.

However, the TUC is aware that such a strategy may not be practical in the long term as workers will naturally worry about the damage refusing to put in the hours could do their career prospects.

"This is why we're saying it's an employer's responsibility to make sure staff work proper hours," said Barber. "It isn't just a point about breaking the law on long hours. Bad managers are failing to ensure staff stick to their proper hours because it's easier to flog them than it is to raise the quality of working."

"And it's counterproductive," added Barber. "Tired workers don't work well or stay well."