Unpaid overtime ‘must be rewarded’

9th December, 2011 - Posted by admin - Comments Off

A leading organisation is calling for unpaid overtime by British employees to be better recognised.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, has claimed that more should be done to reward those who put in this additional time.

His comments follow the publication of Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures that show that unpaid overtime contributes £29 billion to the UK economy. He warned that a culture that encourages this form of behaviour could also have a negative effect on people’s family life.

“Smarter working practices and an end to pointless presenteeism would help make staff more productive and get a better work-life balance,” Mr Barber explained. He highlighted the fact that despite a fall in average hours across the UK, the country is still the third longest-working nation in Europe, behind only Austria and Greece.

The ONS figures found that full-time managers and senior officials worked the largest amount of unpaid overtime each week, averaging an extra 7.6 hours, while process, plant and machine operatives worked longer but were paid for almost all of their total hours.

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