People Working Over 48 Hours A Week Increases To 3.3 Million

An extra 180,000 people across the UK are working more than 48 hours a week in 2008, according to a TUC analysis of official statistics released last Friday.

The analysis, included in the new TUC report - The Return of the Long Hours Culture - has found that the number of people working long hours has increased at a faster rate over the last year than the decline in excessive working between 1998 and 2006.

In the first quarter of 2008, the total number of people working long hours increased by 0.5 percentage points (180,000 people) to 3.3 million. The sharpest increases in long hours working occurred in the East of England (up 2.1 percentage points) and London (up 2 percentage points). Between 1998 and 2006, the number of people working more than 48 hours was reduced by 3.7 percentage points (707,000) from 3.8 million to 3.1 million.
The TUC report argues that the recent increase in the number of people working long hours is due to the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder.

The analysis also finds that 85 per cent of new long hours workers are male. The TUC believes that this trend, in whichsenior jobs are increasingly reliant on long hours, could hamper efforts to close the pay gap, as women with childcare responsibilities are likely to be excluded from these roles.

In order to reverse the growth of long hours working, the TUC is calling for a stronger Working Time Directive (WTD) to protect employees. Since its implementation in 1998, the WTD has helped to reduce excessive long hours, although the UK's opt-out has meant that this progress, in the TUC's view, has been too slow.

The TUC is calling on the Government to back proposals to strengthen the WTD, when employment ministers from the across Europe discuss the Directive at the EU Social Affairs Council meeting on 9 and 10 June.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

"After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long hours working is making its way back into Britain's workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe and the recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family. When the Government meets with other European Ministers next week, it should side with Britain's 25 million workers and take action to end excessive working time, rather than side with the business lobbyists who act as apologists for Britain's long hours culture."

Source: TUC

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