UK workers putting in long hours

Full-time employees in the UK work longer hours than the EU average, with only those in Austria and Greece putting in a longer week, new figures showed last Thursday.

The UK average of 42.7 hours compares with 41.6 across the EU, with the shortest hours recorded in Denmark at 39.1, said the Office for National Statistics.

The UK also has the highest percentage of part-time workers at 27 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in the EU as a whole, after increasing from 24 per cent in 1992.

The increase in part-time work has affected average hours, which stood at 36.3 a week for all employment in the quarter to June, down from 38.1 hours in 1992.

Managers and senior officials worked the longest week at 46.2 hours, although 7.6 hours were unpaid, said the ONS study.

Staff in professional jobs worked 36.6 paid hours, but 43.4 in total, putting in more than six hours a week of unpaid work.

Factory workers and those in lower-skilled jobs worked 44 and 41 hours a week res-pectively, with little unpaid overtime.