North East workers do £14 million of unpaid overtime every week

date: 28 February 2013

embargo: 00:01 hrs Friday 1 March 2013

The North East's workers do unpaid overtime per week worth over £14 million per week and almost £748 million per year according to new findings. Analysis published by the TUC today (Friday), on the ninth annual Work Your Proper Hours Day shows that 1799,030 workers (17.5%) in the North East are regularly working unpaid hours overtime with the average amount being 6 hours per week.

The study of official figures shows that across the UK around 1 in 5 workers regularly does more than their contracted hours without getting paid for it.

However, unpaid overtime is a regular feature for many staff in some professions. The analysis shows that teachers and education professionals put in an average of 11 hours of unpaid work per week and health and social services managers put in 8 hours of free work per week. In the private sector research and development managers typically do 9 hours of unpaid work as do those working in construction.

Back in 2005, the TUC launched Work Your Proper Hours Day - the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid hours at the start of the year - to mark, in a light hearted way, the extent of unpaid overtime across the UK.

Last year five million UK workers regularly put in extra hours for free - worth over £5,600 a year per person to their employer. The 1.8bn hours of unpaid overtime worked across the UK in 2012 added £28.3bn to the economy.

The TUC analysis also shows a sharp rise in unpaid overtime amongst public sector employees, who are more likely to do extra hours for free than private sector staff. Public sector job losses are putting an extra strain on the workloads of those still in work, says the TUC, which is likely to lead to more stress and anxiety.

The TUC is today calling on employers to mark Work Your Proper Hours Day by thanking their staff for the extra work they are doing to help keep organisations and businesses afloat.

The TUC also wants staff - and their managers - to take a proper lunch break and leave work on time today to show that it is possible to work your proper hours without hurting the business.

The TUC believes that while a lot of unpaid overtime is down to heavy workloads, which employers need to manage better, much of it is also down to pointless presenteeism - with staff judged on the hours spent at their desk rather than the work they do.

This workplace culture, as well as heightened fears about job security, often means that staff feel unable to leave on time, even if their work is complete, which leaves them with less time to spend with friends and family, says the TUC.

Northern TUC Regional Secretary Kevin Rowan said: 'Today's figures demonstrate the scale of dedication and commitment so many people in our region give to their job. While some additional working is expected by employers the current figures show such a large amount of unpaid overtime can also represent excessive workloads. A long-hours culture can be bad for workers' health, wellbeing and family life and therefore be bad for the employer and society as a whole.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Top ten occupations most likely to work unpaid overtime

Unpaid overtime by region

Source: Labour Force Survey and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2012

- Further statistics on unpaid overtime are available from the press office.

- Under the working time directive workers have the right not to work more than 48 hours per week on average, to rest breaks and to a day off each week. For more information on your rights at work you can talk to your union, or contact the official Pay and Work Rights Helpline at https://www.gov.uk/pay-and-work-rights-helpline or on 0800 917 2368.

- TUC guidance on tackling a long hours culture at work is available at www.workyourproperhoursday.org.uk

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Kevin Rowan, Northern TUC Regional Secretary T:07766250074 E:krowan@tuc.org.uk

Neil Foster, Policy & Campaigns Officer T: 07786717972 E: nforster@tuc.org.uk