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27 Feb 2009
Comments:1
IT professionals are missing out on thousands of pounds of unpaid overtime according to the latest figures from the TUC.
The organisation has claimed that one in three IT professionals are giving away an average of 34 days of unpaid overtime a year, suggesting that the recession has not reduced the pressure on working time for people in the sector.
According to the TUC, today is Work Your Proper Hours Day, when the average person who does unpaid overtime would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year.
Further reading
This compares with the previous year’s figure of 32 days, which amounts to five hours 48 minutes of free work per week.
Although the TUC is praising employees’ efforts to help their companies through the economic downturn, it is warning that the problem of excessive long hours still needs to be addressed in UK workplaces, especially in tougher times as it can lead to stress and burnout, which can lower productivity.
Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said: “The recession is bringing new pressure for people to work unpaid overtime, and even more IT professionals are doing unpaid overtime than last year.
“But not all unpaid overtime is useful work helping to overcome the recession. When people understandably fear for their jobs employers still have a responsibility to organise work properly and ensure their workplaces don’t get gripped by a long hours culture.
“It would be wrong to replace a ‘last person to leave gets a better chance of promotion’ attitude with a ‘last person to leave is least likely to be made redundant’ view. Employers should think about the harm that long hours week-in-week-out does to the firm and staff – its greatest asset.”
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Long hours, short life
UK employers get away with murder as per usual, because our gutless government excluded British workers from a EU working hours clause which would have limited maximum hours worked to 48 per week.
Untill recently i worked as an engineer & frequently had to stretch my hours into unpaid overtime just to fit in the ridiculous workload & mileages.
The national company for which i worked didnt help matters with their shortsighted cost saving ? policies, these resulted in engineers of many years experience having to waste huge amounts of precious time, making countless phone calls on company mobiles to call centres populated by ignorant, clueless, teens !
The sheer frustration so caused just waiting for someone to answer the phone in itself would raise blood pressure to explosive levels,then having to communicate with the youngster who eventually answered in a manner so they might somehow actually understand what was required of them often led to sheer exasperation.
This kind of thing results in resentfull employees who will not and cannot give their best performance on a daily basis to the employer or customer.
The enforced long hours culture does no one any good,long term it will lead to ill health, several of my past colleagues have succumbed.
I,m so glad to be off the treadmill at present, i grabbed the redundancy & ran like hell, yes things got so bad after 28 years with the same employer i,m happier unemployed !
Its a shame but large organisations never listen to their customer facing staff these days,they have ears only for the share holders and
accountants,this results in poor customer service,anyone who experiences this is a customer lost as they will take their custom elsewhere.
The prospects of finding a similar role/job in my area are slim,the economy is down the tubes but the redundancy package was good and was the last time it would be offered at an enhanced level we where told,this meant many of us with long service hoped we would be selected for redundancy,i was.
Since leaving i,ve heard the poor guys still working there are putting in extra long unpaid overtime, it seems they have to book the hours worked to claim time off at a later date ! 8-AM start & getting home @ 10-PM !
also weekend & bank holiday
working @ week day hourly rates. Thats dreadfull in my opinion & should be outlawed, But what can you do ? with feeble government & feeble unions.
This country is in a diabolical mess,the pendulum has swung too far in favour of our slave driving employers,the unions need to have some teeth given back to them.
Posted by Davy | 27 Feb 2009
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