Public sector employees make up third of unpaid overtime

The TUC has revealed that although UK public sector employees make up 25 per cent of total employees but produce more than 39 per cent of all unpaid overtime.

The analysis of official statistics showed that workers in the North West gave their employers £2.8 billion of free labour in 2017 by doing unpaid overtime, with 467,517 people in the North West put in an average of 7.6 hours a week in unpaid overtime in that period. This averages £5,897 a year that each of those workers is losing out in pay.

Lynn Collins, TUC Regional Secretary for the North West, said: “Public sector workers are more likely to work extra hours unpaid. It’s a mark of how dedicated our public servants are – and it’s kept our schools and hospitals in the North West running through years of funding cuts. But public service workers have also had eight years of real pay cuts, so they are being forced to do more for less. It’s time the government gave them the fully-funded pay rise they have earned.”