Nearly 5 million employees are missing out on £4,955 a year in unpaid overtime, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
TUC research has found that the average amount of unpaid overtime is seven hours and six minutes a week. About one in five of the working population work unpaid overtime, it claims.
The TUC has calculated that if everyone in the UK who works unpaid overtime did all their unpaid work at the start of the year, the first day they would get paid would be Friday 22 February which is why the TUC is declaring the day ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’.
Unsurprisingly, workers in the capital are amongst the hardest hit with an increase of 32,000 working unpaid overtime. The biggest increases occurred in Yorkshire and Humberside (38,000).
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “After years of progress, Britain’s long hours culture is enjoying a renaissance and today’s figures suggest many people are not even being paid for putting in these extra hours.
“People are giving away nearly £5,000 a year in unpaid overtime – that’s too much time and money that could be better spent with friends and family.
“We’re calling on all employees, including bosses, to take a stand on ‘Work Your proper Hours Day’ by making sure they take a proper lunch break and leave on time. ‘Work Your Proper Hours Day’ should be fun, and we want work people across the UK to back our campaign and send out a message that excessive unpaid overtime is bad for staff and bad for business.”
