If you spent yesterday playing in the snow with the kids, there is no need to feel guilty. If you were one of the five million people who regularly work unpaid overtime, you were merely redressing the balance, at least for a day.
The TUC said yesterday that UK workers were giving away £27.4 billion of unpaid overtime, despite a prolonged recession that has seen many companies cut working hours and drastically scale back paid overtime.
According to the TUC’s latest research, the five million people who regularly work unpaid overtime are working on average 57 days a year for nothing. The figure represents the highest number of unpaid extra hours worked since the late 1990s.
TUC calculations suggest that the average employee works 7 hours and 12 minutes a week — worth £5,402 — on top of their paid hours. If everyone who worked unpaid overtime did it from the start of the year, they would start being paid on February 26.
Times Online