Free overtime costs staff dearly

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6229553.stm

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Employees in Northern Ireland worked more than £300m worth of free overtime last year, the TUC has said.

Newly released figures show that on average almost 70,000 people worked extra hours, with a loss to their own pay packet of £4,298.

Government figures suggest that people doing unpaid overtime put in about seven hours for free each week.

Peter Bunting of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions said occasional extra effort could be taken for granted.

"We do not want to turn Britain into a nation of clock watchers, and few mind putting in extra effort from time to time when it is needed, but it is too easy for extra time to get taken for granted and then expected every week," he said.

The union has declared Thursday 'work your proper hours day' as a way of hitting back at the long hours culture.

They want employees to remind bosses of their extra unpaid work by taking a proper lunch break and going home on time.

The TUC had calculated that if everyone who works unpaid overtime did all their unpaid work at the start of the year the first day they would get paid is 23 February.