Single women are the most likely to work unpaid overtime.

A report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has revealed the stark number of people working unpaid overtime in the UK, with teachers and lawyers the most likely to do ‘extreme’ unpaid overtime.

Released to coincide with Work Your Proper Hours Day, the report from the TUC shows that the number of people working ‘extreme’ unpaid overtime of more than ten hours a week increased from 14,000 to nearly 900,000 in 2009.

Work Your Proper Hours Day (26 February) marks the day in the year when the average person would start getting paid if they worked all their unpaid overtime on 1 January. Although the TUC argues that those workers doing ‘extreme’ overtime wouldn’t get paid until April 26.

According to the statistics, teachers, health and social service managers and lawyers were those most likely to fall into this category, with around one in five working an extra 17.5 hours unpaid overtime.

Single women were also marked out as being more likely than single men and married or cohabiting couples to voluntarily give up their time at work for free. 

TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said that people working unpaid overtime is one of the repercussions of the recession, together with people opting for shorter hours or part-time work in order to keep their jobs.

He commented: “Staff are understandably doing all they can to help their company recover from the recession – and bosses should thank them for going that extra mile. But working time still needs to be properly managed. A long hours culture is bad for workers’ health and family life – whether the hours are paid or not.”

Barber also argued that the TUC’s research strongly disproves the public sector worker stereotype of a cosy lifestyle: “In fact they are giving away billions of pounds worth of work for free – and more per person than those in the private sector.”

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said that teachers have always worked long hours due to the unprescriptive working week but she says that too many unnecessary paperwork tasks are creating a demoralised workforce.

“It’s clear that the workforce remodelling agreement has made no impact on the world life balance for teachers. There is also a clear link between working too many hours and the high stress levels amongst teachers.

“It is vitally important that the Government addresses this issue and takes its duty of care seriously.”

The report showed that in 2009, over five million people in the UK worked an average of 7 hours 12 minutes of unpaid overtime a week – worth around £27.4 billion, or £5,402 each.