The Trades Union Congress (TUC) claimed today that UK employers did "unpaid overtime worth £23 billion in 2004" according to its analysis of National Office of Statistics employment figures.
The TUC said that "on average each employee who did unpaid overtime would have earned £4,650 for their unpaid hours if paid at their normal hourly rate. If they had done all their unpaid overtime at the beginning of the year, they would have worked for free until Friday 25 February."
Risking the charge of encouraging clockwatching, the TUC has called 'Work Your Proper Hours Day' in 2005 for Friday 25 February.
This, it says, "is the day once a year that the TUC urges employees to only work their contracted hours to remind their bosses how much they depend on the unpaid extra work and loyalty of their staff."
It added, "Bosses should take their staff out for a lunchtime or after-work meal, coffee or cocktail to say thank you."
However, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber insisted that the Congress "was not saying that we should turn into a nation of clock-watchers", adding, "Most people do not mind putting in some extra time when there's a crisis or an unexpected rush. But too many workplaces have come to depend on very long hours. They get taken for granted and staff have to do even more if there is an unexpected rush."
Barber said the long hours worked by employees "put employer complaints of the costs of benefits such as pensions or time off for new parents into perspective", and said employers had been cutting back on pensions "even as their staff put in longer hours."
The TUC's report can be found at:
www.tuc.org.uk
The National Office of Statistics' most recent employment figures can be found at:
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