Unpaid overtime is on the decline in Scotland, but progress is so slow that it will take until 2025 before no-one is doing more than 10 hours unpaid extra work every week, according to an analysis of official statistics published by the TUC today (Friday).
The new research is published on the TUC’s Work Your Proper Hours Day 2007, the day when people who do unpaid overtime would on average get paid if they did all their unpaid work at the start of the year. The STUC is today urging people in Scotland to take a proper lunch break and leave work on time to remind managers of all the extra unpaid hours, and is calling on Scotland’s bosses to say thank you for the extra work by taking their staff to lunch or an after-work coffee. There are many fun ways of marking the day at [www.workyourproperhoursday.com], including the chance to win a special “work your proper hours day” clock for a photo of what people get up to in their lunch breaks.
Those workers who do unpaid overtime in Scotland put in on average an extra 6 hours 30 minutes of work a week, according to the Government’s Labour Force Survey. This would add £4,151 to pay packets every year if paid at the average regional hourly wage – and across Scotland adds up to nearly two billion pounds (£1.73 billion).
There has been a small decline in the proportion of the workforce in Scotland doing more than 10 hours a week unpaid overtime over the last five years. 56,078 employees currently do unpaid overtime averaging more than 10 hours a week, which is 2.6 per cent of the workforce – down from 3.3 per cent since 2001. On current trends it will take until 2025 before no-one in Scotland regularly does more than 10 hours extra every week – more than an extra day’s work each week. This means that Scotland has had exactly the same fall as the UK average.
Employees across the UK will have to wait until 2030 on current trends before unpaid overtime of more than 10 hours a week disappears. Nationally 3.4 per cent of the workforce do more than ten hours overtime every week – down from 4.1 per cent in the last five years.
Scottish TUC General Secretary Grahame Smith said: “Work Your Proper Hours Day is a chance to have bit of fun at work tomorrow, but it should also get people asking some serious questions about work/life balance in Scotland. The best we can say is that our long hours culture is not getting any worse, and there are some real, but pretty glacial, signs of progress over the last five years.
“But we should not have to wait until 2025 before there are no longer any workers in Scotland regularly doing more than 10 hours extra unpaid work each week. That is a recipe for burn-out and inefficiency. It is working stupid not working smart.
“Of course we are not calling for Scotland to become a nation of clock-watchers. Most staff are happy to put in some extra time when there’s an emergency or extra pressure of work, but it should not be taken for granted week in, week out. Employers in long hours workplaces should be asking hard questions about their culture, how their work is organised and whether they can repay staff through allowing more flexible working arrangements. That is why the STUC will mark Work Your Proper Hours Day by adding our support to the campaign to change the law to give everyone the right to request flexible working and a better work/life balance.”