Unpaid Hours Still Rife in British Business

22% of UK workers admit to working 10 or more hours of unpaid overtime per week, according to the latest poll from High Street recruitment company Select Appointments. Of the 1,186 people polled a further 20% admitted to working over five hours extra a week.

The figures are in spite of new working time rules being introduced by government to look after the interests of the employee. In addition a quarter of employees now work flexible hours. In 2004 workers lost an estimated 23bn* in unpaid overtime, which shows that there is a need to tackle this long hours culture.

Bill Dykes, HR Director, Select Appointments said: Britons seem to be addicted to their jobs and work the longest hours in Europe. Although many workers crave work-life balance, work seems to take over their very existence in a bid to climb the career ladder.

It’s difficult to assess whether businesses are responsible for piling the work onto their employees, or the employees themselves feel they have to put in the hours to keep their jobs. However, it’s encouraging that 51% of those polled work less than five hours of unpaid overtime per week.