UK doesnít need long hours opt-out

As European ministers meet to discuss the future of the UKís opt-out from the Working Time Directiveís 48 hour limit on the average working week, the TUC has today (Tuesday) published a new analysis of official figures showing that the UK does not need an opt-out any longer.

Long hours working is on the decline across the economy, and most of those who still work more than 48 hours a week would be exempt from the limit because of the jobs they do, or only put in one or two extra hours above the 48 hour limit.

Minor changes to this groupís working patterns, coupled with the new flexibility to work out the average working week over a year (rather than the current 17 week period) that would be likely to accompany an end to the opt-out, would mean an end to the opt-out would have little economic impact. Yet it would still make an important difference to just under one million workers whose long hours threaten both their health and safety and their work/life balance.

The TUCís analysis of unpublished findings from the Governmentís Labour Force Survey, published in Gain without pain - Why the UK can afford working time rights shows:

The number of UK employees working more than 48 hours has declined by 17.5 per cent since the 1998 peak of 4.0 million, 700,000 fewer employees are now working long hours.

The incidence of long hours workers has declined in every industry, occupation and region, although the pattern of improvement is very uneven, with some sectors doing much better than others.

Because of the growth of some jobs and industries there are more long hours workers in some of them, but even here the proportion doing long hours has fallen.

Starting from a higher baseline, the decline of long hours working has been much sharper in the private sector.
Ending the opt-out will have little economic impact, not just because fewer people now work very long hours, but also because:

A third of UK employees who work more than 48 hours per week are only working one or two extra hours per week. Up to a million UK employees would continue to be exempt from the 48-hour limit. These are mostly autonomous workers - largely senior managers and professionals who genuinely control their own hours. If the opt-out ends then it is certain that the deal reached by EU ministers will include increasing the period for averaging the 48-hour limit from 17 weeks to 52 weeks. This would exclude about 1.5 million UK long hours workers from the coverage of the 48-hour week, since they do not sustain their excessive working time over the full year.

This means that only 800,000 to 1 million UK employees would have to make a serious change to their working patterns if the opt-out ends, but many of these work excessively long hours with at least 130,000 regularly putting in more than 60 hours a week. It would therefore make a significant difference to the group that needs it the most.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: Ministers tell us that keeping the opt out is essential to the UKís economic success, but these figures hole that argument below the waterline. The truth is that long hours working is already in decline - not fast enough for sure - but is still a marked trend, particularly in the private sector. And most of those still working more than 48 hours a week either have the kind of jobs that are not covered by European rules, only work a little over the limit or will not have to change their hours because of new flexibilities introduced by any likely European deal.

What it will do is give important protection to the fewer than a million hard core of long hours workers who need working time rights for their health and well-being, but at little or no cost to the wider economy. What ministers oppose is a very modest limit that says workers cannot do six eight hour days week in week out throughout the year.