UK Workers Lose Out on $44Bln in Unpaid Overtime in 2015

UK employers saved 31.5 billion pounds ($44 billion) in overtime work performed by their employees without compensation during the year 2015, the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On the average, a UK employee did 7.7 hours of extra work a week in unpaid overtime in 2015. An average UK worker put in the equivalent of almost two months' of work in unpaid overtime annually, according to the TUC.

"The TUC study reveals that men work 1.1 billion unpaid overtime hours a year, compared to 0.9 billion hours for women. Around one in five (19.2%) men work unpaid overtime, averaging 8.5 hours per week. A similar percentage of women (19.5%) also put in unpaid hours," the TUC said in a press release.

The analysis revealed that British people aged between 40 and 44 were most likely to do unpaid overtime.

In London, one in four workers regularly do unpaid overtime, and would be able to make almost 9,000 pounds annually if they were compensated for this overtime.

The analysis was published to coincide with the TUC annual Work Your Proper Hours Day, when the Congress calls on employees to take a full lunch break and avoid overtime.

According to last year's analysis, UK workers gifted their employers 32-billion-pounds worth of unpaid overtime in 2014.