Londoners lose £7k a year in overtime
7:27am Friday 5th January 2007 in Latest News By Martina Smit
Londoners have improved their work-life balance by doing 36 minutes less unpaid overtime
Employees in London work more than seven hours a week overtime without getting paid, missing out on over £7,000 a year.
Nevertheless Londoners have given up their spot as the country's worst workaholics to employees in the North East, a study by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has found.
Countrywide people did £23 billion worth of unpaid overtime last year. But there was a small drop of 18 minutes in the average amount of unpaid extra work, now down to seven hours six minutes.
A total of 709,492 Londoners do an average of 7 hours 36 minutes extra each week, worth £135.96. Over a year, that adds up to £7,070 per person - totalling more than half a billion pounds across the region.
Still, the city's residents have somewhat improved their work-life balance, as their unpaid overtime has dropped by 36 minutes over the last year.
The North East now does the most unpaid work, topping London by just six minutes with a weekly average of 7 hours 42 minutes.
Scotland has the least workaholics, averaging 6 hours 30 minutes of extra time. "We work the longest hours in Europe, and too many workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.
"There are some small signs that we are getting a bit better, but there is still a long way to go."
If everyone across the UK did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year, they would only be paid by 23 February, the union concluded.
Hence the TUC named 23 February "'Work Your Proper Hours Day", calling on employees to take a proper lunch break and go home on time that day "We do not want to turn Britain into a nation of clock watchers, and few mind putting in extra effort from time to time when it is needed," said Mr Barber. "But it is too easy for extra time to get taken for granted and then expected every week."
