According to new figures from the TUC, over 5.5m British workers now do unpaid overtime, averaging more than 7 hours a week and representing more then £5,000 a year worth of free labour to their employer.

By these calculations, the total value of unpaid overtime done by British workers is £28bn a year according to TUC analysis of official figures released today (Weds) – an increase of £5 billion since the TUC’s last analysis in September 2000. The TUC says the huge amount of unpaid overtime more than compensates employers for the exaggerated costs of introducing decent minimum standards of legal protection.

The number of people doing unpaid overtime has risen to by over a quarter of a million to more than one in five workers (22%).

Women in professional occupations are the most likely to work unpaid overtime (57%) although men are slightly more likely to work unpaid overtime overall (23% compared with 21%). Overall, those in professional occupations are most likely to do unpaid overtime (51%) at an average of almost 9.5 hours a week, representing £7,316 a year.

TUC General Secretary, John Monks, said: “Employer organisations are always whingeing about the costs of what they call red tape, yet you never hear any gratitude for the vast amounts of unpaid overtime their staff put in. The truth is that when employers talk about the benefits of flexible labour markets, they mean stripping away terms and conditions, as many are now doing with occupational pensions. They point to the US as their preferred model, but people at work in the UK should be warned that on average annual leave is just 10 days compared with 25 in the UK. And of course employers never count the benefits of treating staff well in their back of the envelope calculations. Imagine what the cumulative costs of stopping children clean chimneys must be by now!”

Is unpaid overtme now expected in many jobs? Post your comments below?