JEAN LAMBERT STATEMENT ON WORK HOURS

NATIONAL WORK YOUR PROPER HOURS DAY Friday 25th February 2005

People in the UK are working the longest hours in Europe. Over five million people at work in the UK regularly do unpaid overtime, giving their employers £23 billion of free work every year. The Green Party has joined the TUC's in its call to make this Friday a 'National Work Your Proper Hours Day’; the day to take a proper lunch break and to start and leave work on time.

This Friday 25th February has been chosen as it is the point in the year at which the average person doing unpaid overtime finally starts working for themselves (see notes).

Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP said; "Long hours are not good for us; they cause stress; they are bad for our health; they damage relationships; they make looking after children or dependents more difficult; and tired, burnt-out staff are bad for business."

Workers in the UK already have the longest working week in the EU, with the longest hours worked by the most vulnerable. Indeed many of those currently working very long hours are still not earning enough to support their families or themselves. As a report by Green MEP Jean Lambert found last year, long hours means increasing the poverty gap, ill-health and social exclusion.

The Greens' proposals include:

- Working towards a maximum 35-hour working week - but with protection of earnings.

- A Citizens' Income scheme to encourage part-time working, job-share, and time off for parenting and voluntary work.

Notes

The TUC analysed the findings of two official 2004 surveys, the Office of National Statistics Labour Force survey and its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The findings showed that if employees had tacked the average extra hours worked onto the beginning of this year, they would still be in the office on February 25. According to the union body, if employees had been paid at their normal rate for the extra hours they had put in, they would have earned on average £4,650 extra over the year.

See: http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday/