More than 5.4 million employees put in around £640 million worth of unpaid hours every week in 2013, amounting to £33 billion worth of unpaid hours a year, according to research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Its research, which was released to coincide with annual Work Your Proper Hours Day on 28 February 2014, found that the number of people who regularly work unpaid hours increased by 331,000 in 2013, to 5.42 million, the biggest annual rise since comparable records began in 1998.
The research also found that the proportion of people doing unpaid overtime is at its highest-ever level, at 21.2% of the UK workforce, while the average amount of unpaid overtime has also reached a record high of seven hours, 48 minutes a week.
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London is the capital of unpaid overtime, with 900,000 workers regularly putting in more than eight hours of unpaid overtime every week.
Employees in education are the group most likely to do unpaid overtime (37.7%), followed by those in professional, scientific and technical activities (33.3%).
People in their early 40s are the most likely to do unpaid overtime (26.8%), followed by those in their late 40s (25.5%) and late 30s (25.3%).
Frances O’Grady, general secretary at the TUC, said: “Staff across Britain work among the longest hours in Europe, and are not even paid for much of the extra time they put in.
“Staff don’t mind doing a few additional hours during busy periods, but too many employers take this goodwill for granted and forget to thank their staff. Further problems arise when those occasional extra hours become the norm, and staff become overworked and underpaid.
“The many bosses who encourage long hours in the office should re-think their approach as stressed, overworked staff are often unhappy and unproductive.”
It is clear that the British workforce does not have a clock-in, clock-out mentality. While this can be a good thing for organisations, in some respects, the fact that there is a lack of recognition for workers’ efforts is likely to cause problems in the long-run.
Not only could staff become increasingly unproductive, if they do not feel as if their extra contribution is being valued, they are also at risk of becoming de-motivated. This could negatively impact an organisation’s bottom line. In addition, employees will likely seek out new employment opportunities where they would be recognised for their effort.
Employers don’t necessarily have to provide their employees with additional financial compensation for extra hours. For many staff, it isn’t solely about the money, but rather about being appreciated. In fact, the Globoforce UK Workforce Mood Tracker found that 77% of workers like to have their efforts at work recognised, and 73% say that recognition motivates them to do a better job, indicating that financial rewards aren’t always the answer. The survey also revealed that 29% of employees have left an organisation because they were not being recognised for the work they do, while 42% are looking for a new job due to a lack of recognition in their current role.