Senior managers have overtaken teachers to take the top slot in the 2006 unpaid overtime league table, according to TUC figures.
Top managers, who do unpaid hours, put in on average an extra 12 hours of unpaid work each week – an increase of more than two hours from 2005. If they did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year, managers would not get paid until 24 March.
Teaching professionals have been pushed back to second place, although their unpaid overtime is the same as in last year’s league table at 11 hours 36 minutes per week, on average.
The TUC’s annual league table is published today on Work Your Proper Hours Day – the day the average employee doing unpaid hours would start to get paid if they did all their extra time at the start of the year.
The league table, derived from the official 60,000-strong Labour Force Survey, shows that managerial and professional staff dominate the top places. But less senior staff in IT, law, accountancy and finance are also likely to put in almost an extra day of unpaid work a week.
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: “Work Your Proper Hours Day should make us all think seriously not just about our own work-life balance, but also about whether we can organise our workplaces better so that we can be just as productive but get home a bit earlier.”
