As Europeís social affairs ministers meet to discuss reform of the Working Time Directive today (Thursday), the TUC has published a poll that shows almost one in three of the workforce - more than 8 million employees - say that long hours or stress have stopped them taking up some training or education in the last three years.
Employer lobbyists claim that long hours working is essential to business success, but most experts agree that one of the biggest brakes on UK productivity is the poor skills of too many of the workforce. said TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber.
But this poll shows that long hours working is one of the main obstacles to improving skills. We run the risk of getting caught in a vicious circle of long hours working, low skills and low productivity. Long hours is not a sign of economic success but badly organised workplaces with tired inefficient staff.
If Europeís ministers agree to phase out the opt-out on the 48 hour working week at their meeting which starts today, they will be giving British productivity a boost.
The poll shows that 29 per cent of the workforce agree that My current job has such long hours or so stressful a workload that I do not have the time or energy to take up a course. This rises to 35 per cent among full time workers.
The TUC asked this question as part of a wider poll on barriers to learning and the best ways of overcoming them, which will be released next week.
Long hours holds back productivity
Almost one in three of the workforce say that long hours or stress have stopped them taking up some training or education in the last three years
