London Boroughs Have Worst Working Hours

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Male employees in three London boroughs work the longest hours in Britain, a new trade union study has shown. They are among the 25 per cent of UK men working over 48 hours a week, five years after legislation designed to bring excess hours under control.

The GMB London Region announced these figures (see table) at the Hazards 2003 Conference in London. The union commissioned the University of Durham to analyse the data from the 2001 Census.

The top ten areas of Britain with the highest percentages of men working long hours include some of the wealthy boroughs of London. London overall has nearly half a million men regularly working over 48 hours, and is the fifth worst of the country's twelve regions.

UK workers are supposed to be protected by the European Commission's Working Time Directive, which came into force in the UK in October 1998 as the Working Time Regulations. Before the regulations, 2.7 million UK workers of both sexes were known to work over 48 hours. The UK government was reluctant to consider hours as a health issue at all, and insisted on exemptions from the European standards. It cannot be a coincidence that the figure for men alone is now 3.4 million.

The Working Time Directive is currently under review by the European Commission. The TUC, meeting in September, passed a resolution on work-life balance, calling for a campaign to end the "work till you drop" culture. Congress called for an end of the right of UK workers to opt out of the maximum 48 hour week, and for an end to the exclusion of certain jobs, such as train drivers, from the legislation.

The opt-out is forced on many workers as they are taken on. The right not to opt-out is meaningless for workers forced into systematic overtime in grossly low-paid industries including transport, food manufacture, agriculture, service sector jobs and construction. The government's Labour Force Survey shows that two out of three people who work more than 48 hours want to work fewer hours. But only one in three employees even know that there is a limit on the average working week.

It is expected that in the new year the European Commission will present a number of options ranging from getting rid of the opt-out completely, to setting a maximum number of hours - such as a 60 hour week - for an employee who signs an opt-out.

In a separate development, the Road Transport Directive comes into force in 2005. It will still allow drivers a maximum working week of 60 hours and a maximum continuous period of 12 hours. But the average time worked by any driver over a four-month period (17 weeks) must not exceed 48 hours a week. There is no opt-out.

UK employers are lobbying hard to keep the opt-out and it is one of the Confederation of British Industry's key campaigns. The reason is clear from surveys by construction industry employers' organisations which reveal frighteningly high percentages of workers working excessive hours:

• Construction Confederation: 38% of workers regular work over 48 hours, 55% have signed the opt-out
• Heating and Ventilation Contractors Association: 45% have signed the opt-out
• Electrical Contractors Association: 48% regularly work over the limit, 56% have signed an opt-out.

All three have recently met construction minister Nigel Griffiths to argue for keeping the opt out. According to Construction News, the Department of Trade and Industry has "strong reservations" about abolishing the opt-out.

Resources

LHC factsheets Working Time: 1: Shift work and night work and 2: Long working hours are available at www.lhc.org.uk or by phoning the advice line 020 7794 5999.

London's overwork league table

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