Nearly half of employers do not reward staff who work beyond their contracted hours, new research has revealed.
A survey of 500 employers by communications giant T-Mobile found 46% of organisations did not give extra money or praise to employees that worked late, or above their normal working hours. More than half (59%) of employers did not consider late working in the office as an indication of how hard they worked, the survey revealed.
Ollie Chivers, head of business marketing at T-Mobile UK, said: “It is encouraging to see that employers are increasingly aware that staff do not need to spend all night in the office to be productive and do their jobs effectively. In fact we’ve found that people think they are more productive when they work away from the office, and mobile working has a clear role to play in tackling the UK’s notorious long hours culture.”
Yesterday, the European Parliament voted to scrap the UK’s opt-out to the Working Time Directive (WTD), meaning employees would no longer be able to work more than 48 hours per week on average over a 12-month reference period. Currently, employees can sign an opt-out clause to work as long as they choose.
Christine Edwards, professor of HR management at Kingston University Business School, which launched a further report on behalf of T-Mobile, Demise of the Desk Hugger, said if the UK does lose its right to opt-out of the WTD, flexible and mobile working would steadily increase.
“Now is the time for all employers to consider how they can get the best out of their mobile workers,” she said.
The UK government will now enter negotiations with the European council of ministers, with the aim of reaching a final decision on whether the opt-out will be scrapped early next spring.
