Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day

If the average long hours employee did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year, today (Friday) is the day they would start to be paid. This is why the TUC has made today íWork Your Proper Hours Dayí and is calling on people to remind their bosses how much they depend on unpaid hours by going to work on time, taking a proper lunch break and leaving work when they are meant to.

The average long hours employee does almost an extra day of work each week (7 hours 18 minutes) according to official statistics. If paid at the average wage for these hours they would get an extra 4,650 in their pay packet a year.

The TUC is calling on managers to say thank you to staff today by making sure they do their proper hours and even take them out for a coffee or cocktail after work. Bosses across the country will be receiving anonymous íbossagramsí from their staff sent through www.workyourproperhoursday.com asking them to recognise their employeeís unpaid work, and there is still time to send a íbossagramí through the website before the end of the day (Friday). Thousands of people have already visited the site to work out how much their own unpaid overtime is worth with our overtime calculator, where their job comes in the overtime league table, download posters to put up at work and send their friends e-cards about the day.

Work Your Proper Hours Day is kicked off by TUC íprotestersí with light-hearted placards, sandwich boards and leaflets greeting commuters at Liverpool St Station between 7:30am - 9am urging them to take a proper lunch and leave work on time. And TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber will take part in a similar event at Cardiff Central Station (details in notes).

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: We all know we work the longest hours in Europe. Work Your Proper Hours Day is a chance for the white collar workers who do the most unpaid overtime to take a stand for just one day a year, and point out just how much modern workplaces are gripped by a long hours culture.

Todayís campaigning is all very light-hearted. The figures show that managers themselves often work very long hours. Many of the staff involved have jobs they enjoy and involve real responsibility. But there is a serious point, and our aim is that todayís events should make every long hours workplace question their culture and the way they organise their work.

The questions they should ask include: Is their more room for flexible working? Have people just got into the habit of long hours because they think thatís the only way to get on? Is your workplace culture fair to those with other commitments such as caring for children or elderly relatives? Are staff getting burnt out and stressed, with little chance to recharge their batteries?

Across the country Londoners are the most likely to do unpaid overtime and do the longest hours. Among occupations, teachers and lecturers do the most hours as do many senior managers. Information technology, accountancy and law are among the sectors with most long hours working.