London and the South East do the most unpaid work

New figures released by the TUC have revealed that UK workers did nearly two billion hours (1,968 million hours) of unpaid overtime last year, worth £29.2bn to the UK economy.

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The announcement coincides with the announcement of this year’s Work Your Proper Hours Day (WYPHD), which is to be held Friday 24 February, to highlight the unpaid hours put in by workers to help their employers.

The TUC analysis of official figures found 5.3 million workers put in an average of 7.2 hours of unpaid overtime a week last year, worth around £5,300 a year per person.

London and the South East workers did the most unpaid work, with 26.9% and 25% of employees likely to work extra hours for free respectively. While workers in the West Midlands and the North East experienced the sharpest rise in the likelihood of working unpaid overtime over the last year, up 3% and 2.2% respectively.

TUC warned that some employers are forcing staff to work extremely long hours that damage their health. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "While many of the extra unpaid hours worked could easily be reduced by changing work practices and ending the UK's culture of pointless presenteeism, a small number of employers are exploiting staff by regularly forcing them to do excessive amounts of extra work for no extra pay.

'This attitude is not only bad for workers' health, it's bad for the economy too as it reduces productivity and holds back job creation.

'No-one wants to see us to become a nation of clock-watchers. But a more sensible and grown up attitude to working time could cut out needless unpaid hours and help more people into work.'