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date: 26 April 2009

embargo: 00:01 hours Monday 27 April 2009

Time to take on the working time myths

As the European Commission and European Parliament get ready for a mediation meeting to resolve their differences on the future of the Working Time Directive (WTD), the TUC has today (Monday) published ten myths about working time that it believes have had too much influence on the debate so far.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'With unemployment growing across Europe, there cannot be a better time to bear down on very long hours working. Yet employer organisations are still getting away with peddling a series of myths about working time, and the UK Government has fallen for many of these.

'The truth is that very long hours working makes people ill, involves others in accidents and covers up poor management and unproductive workplaces. Any new rules on working time will be phased in, giving employers plenty of time to adjust.'

Top ten myths about working time

• The UK economy needs long hours to succeed. Long hours actually impede productivity. The UK works the longest hours in the EU-15, but we are only tenth out of 15 in terms of productivity per hour. We need investment, training and better work organisation, not more hours.
• The Working Time Directive ties up business in red tape. The WTD sets an average limit of 48 hours on weekly working, but this is averaged over 17 weeks, which is more than enough to meet most peaks in demand. Furthermore, in a number of industries the averaging period is automatically increased to 26 weeks. If a business genuinely cannot survive without its staff working excessive hours on a permanent basis, then management need to think again about how work is organised.
• We should not be talking about limiting hours in a recession. On the contrary, this is the best time to plan for a future with a sensible work-life balance. During a recession the demand for long hours falls sharply, as many workers lose their jobs or go on to short-time working. Recent figures show that the number of people working more than 48 hours has dropped by 120,000 to 3.2 million. While cutting hours does not automatically result in a new job being created for someone else, it is unfair that employees are still working long hours when others are underemployed or have no work at all. Even if the end of the opt-out is agreed in 2009, the 48 hour week would then be phased in and wouldn't be fully operative until 2015.
• Long hours are not a health and safety issue. Recent reports from the Health and Safety Executive, International Labour Organisation and the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) found that those who regularly work more than 48 hours a week are likely to suffer an increased risk of heart disease, stress related illness, mental illness, diabetes and bowel problems.
• The UK has a good health and safety record so there is no need to worry about long hours and overwork. Those who make this point always refer to the accident statistics in EU countries. But the health and safety concerns with long hours working are mostly about the detrimental health effects rather than accident rates. There is abundant evidence that long hours have an impact on workers' health, and we have had more than our fair share of disasters where long hours and fatigue have been contributory factors.
• All those work long hours are happy to do so. Recent research highlights widespread abuse of the WTD opt-out by employers. A 2004 DTI report found that only 34 per cent of long hours workers had signed an opt-out, despite a legal requirement for most long hours workers to do so. Of the 66 per cent that had not signed an opt-out, one in four said that they were pressured to work long hours by their employer. Fifty eight per cent of long hours workers said would be happy for their employer to limit them to 48 hours.
• Employers are willing to tackle any cases of abuse of the current regulations. Employers have had ten years to deal with abuse of the WTD opt-out but many have shown little inclination to put their house in order. Fifty per cent of long hours workers who have either raised issues about the 48 hour limit or know that such issues have been raised by someone else in their workplace say that the issue was not resolved.
• Unions are trying to make a rule that workers don't want. Employers are simply defending a worker's right to work long hours. Given their record of opposing employment rights, employers' organisations lack credibility as workers' champions. Seven out of ten (2.2 million) long hours workers do not receive any extra pay for the extra hours that they put in. Of the one million workers who are paid overtime, 53 per cent say they would like to reduce their hours.
• Small businesses rely on long hours to succeed. Small businesses are actually less reliant on long hours than larger employers. Although more than a third (34 per cent) of UK employees work in businesses with less than 25 workers, these small businesses employ less than a third (31.4 per cent) of long hours workers.
• Globalisation means that we must work more hours. The UK's main competitive advantage is in 'high road' businesses - in other words, in working smart. Relying on long hours is usually a sign that the business is not very smart, wherever in the world it is located.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The TUC briefing is available at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/workingtimemyths.pdf

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk
Rob Holdsworth T: 020 7467 1372 M: 07717 531150 E: rholdsworth@tuc.org.uk
Elly Brenchley T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: ebrenchley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,000 words) issued 27 Apr 2009