Short Work of Long Hours

03-08-2007

It is a truth most assume to be universally acknowledged: that British workers are stressed out by the longest working hours in Europe.

At the beginning of the year, the TUC produced the latest set of statistics to support that case, claiming that the average British employee puts in a full working day in unpaid overtime every week – that's almost £5,000 in unpaid salary every year.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that too many British workplaces are "gripped by a long hours culture" and, although there has been a slight annual reduction in unpaid overtime, there is still a lot to do.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), however, says this commonly accepted truth is a myth, put about by unions and pressure groups pushing for better work-life balance for members.

Mike Emmott, the CIPD's employee-relations adviser, argues that figures from the Office for National Statistics debunked Britain’s long-hours "myth" last year and that figures from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions have since debunked it again.

"The European figures were manna from heaven for those of us who are fed up being slapped on the hand for claiming the UK does not work more hours than the rest of Europe," said Emmott. The CIPD claims that while there are indeed more people working over 48 hours a week in Britain than in other EU countries, the number working fewer than 30 hours is also greater than in other countries.

"The average number of hours worked in the UK is actually slightly below the European average," said Emmott. "The UK labour market is characterised by far greater variation in working hours than other parts of Europe. This is partly because we have more part-time workers and because we are less governed by collective agreements."

Despite the spat over whether we are the workhorse of Europe, the CIPD supports efforts to curb long working hours, although it insists that increasingly flexible ways of working are the way forward, not getting rid of the opt-out clause from the EU working time directive that states people should not work more than 48 hours a week.

Everyone involved in the long hours debate agrees that more flexible working practices are at least one solution to the problem – and that more flexible working is likely to develop as the demographic changes bite and the war for talent intensifies.

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