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Unpaid labour hours increase

The number of hours worked as unpaid overtime by employees has increased significantly according to research by the TUC (Trade Union Congress).

The research found that employees gave up an average of seven hours and 12 minutes of their time, unpaid a week worth £27 million which represented £5402 per person. This is the highest amount since the practice was first recorded in the late 1990s.

The study revealed that overall the number of people doing this dropped by 168,000 since 2008, but of the five million workers who did undertake work duties without being paid, 900,000 worked more than 10 hours a week unpaid.

Brendan Barber, TUC's general secretary, said: ‘The recession has forced many employees to do less hours in an effort to save jobs and this has also had an effect on the amount of unpaid overtime worked.’

He added: 'Most employers are understandably focused on fighting their way through the recession. But they shouldn't forget that working cultures such as pointless “presenteeism” - which keeps people at their desks for no good reason - is not just bad for staff but bad for business too.'

18/01/2010