TUC Says We Are Still Working Too Many Hours

Ofiicial statistics analysed by the Trades Unions Congress (TUC) showed 124,000 people, 10.8% of all employees in Wales, were working more than 48 hours a week in 2008.

Published in the TUC’s report, The Return of the Long Hours Culture, the data has found little change since 2007. Across the UK, the number of people working more than 48 hours a week increased by 180,000 to 3.3 million, an increase of 0.5 per cent. This compares with the period between 1998 and 2006, when the number of people working more than 48 hours was cut by 3.7% from 3.8 million to 3.1 million.

The TUC report argues that the recent increase in the number of people working long hours is due to the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder.

The analysis also finds that 85 per cent of new long hours workers are male. The TUC believes that this trend, in which senior jobs are increasingly reliant on long hours, could hamper efforts to close the pay gap, as women with childcare responsibilities are likely to be excluded from these roles.

In order to reverse the growth of long hours working, the TUC is calling for a stronger the Working Time Directive (WTD) to protect employees. Since its implementation in 1998, the WTD has helped to reduce excessive long hours, although the UK's opt-out has meant that this progress, in the TUC's view, has been too slow.

Derek Walker, Wales TUC head of policy and campaigns, said: “After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long-hours working is making its way back into Britain’s workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe and the recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family.”

Mr Walker added: “When the Government meets other European ministers next week, it should side with Britain’s 3.3 million workers and take action to end excessive working time.”