Unpaid overtime gives bosses £28bn

Employees
are giving £28bn a year to their bosses by working unpaid overtime, according
to the TUC.

And,
the TUC said, this figure is on the increase.

According
to its figures, more than 5.5 million workers put in extra hours, working an
average of seven extra hours a week.

This
means each employee provides more than £5,000 a year free labour to their
employer.

TUC
general secretary John Monks says the amount of unpaid overtime being worked
more than compensates employers for the "exaggerated" costs of making
sure workers had decent standards of legal protection.

He
said: "Employer organisations are always whingeing about the costs of what
they call red tape, yet you never hear any gratitude for the vast amounts of
unpaid overtime their staff put in."

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The
TUC said the value of unpaid overtime increased by £5bn over the past year.

By Quentin Reade