Overtime payments reduced as recession bites
The TUC has revealed that the amount of overtime paid this year has fallen by £1 billion to £10 million in what many believe is a sign of the recession. However, this is not your stereotypical sign of a recession because the TUC believes that more and more people feel "obligated" to give up their own private time to their work - unpaid.
While it is impossible to confirm or deny the TUC report, because many employees are concerned about making their identity public, there has been a feeling for some time that the number of overtime hours has fallen while actual working hours have remained fairly static. It seems as though more and more people in the UK are prepared to "go that extra mile" in exchange for increased job security at a time when many people are concerned about their jobs and their income.
This is not the first time that unpaid overtime has been highlighted by the TUC although until official complaints are made it seems unlikely that any great progress will be made in the short to medium term. The problem is that people need to feed their families, businesses need to operate and ultimately in a recession there needs to be some give and take on both sides.
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