UK Experiencing ‘Epidemic’ of Long Working Hours, Says Health and Safety Experts

Commuters crossing the Golden Jubilee Bridge in London, on March 3, 2022. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Wire

Health and safety specialists have said the UK is experiencing an “epidemic” of long work hours, with 24 percent of employees saying they regularly work more than 48 hours a week, the legal maximum.

A study by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) also found that half of respondents to their survey regularly do two or more unpaid hours of work per week, with 41 percent regularly working one or more unpaid hours a day.

In the last year, 57 percent have also worked despite feeling too ill to do so, according to the survey of 1,000 workers from a range of sectors and roles published on Friday.

More than half (52 percent) of workers also regularly check work emails and messages outside of work hours. Nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) said they have checked and responded to work-related messages during their annual leave.

Never Off Duty

IOSH said the figure suggests that an “always-on” culture has become embedded in British workplaces, with 44 percent of those surveyed also saying that working more than your contracted hours was part of the culture at their company.

Head of policy at IOSH, Ruth Wilkinson, said that this culture of always being available is often one of the details hidden in the small print of employment contracts.

“The term ‘never off duty’ is often thrown around but for many, it’s a reality,” Wilkinson said.

She added: “This cannot continue. Our survey results show there is an epidemic of people working long hours—often without pay—and with people working while ill or on holiday.”

Wilkinson said that there are hidden issues with employers working such long hours, particularly on health.

“We already know that the UK has economically inactive workers and workers being on long-term sick leave. If we stand by and ignore this, then it could get worse,” the IOSH policy chief said.

‘Right to Switch Off’

Despite the high numbers of those reporting working extra hours for free, outside of work hours, and on holiday, 90 percent of respondents told IOSH that workers should have the right to switch off, a measure Labour put in its “Plan to Make Work Pay“ section of its manifesto.

In the document, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged that the COVID-19 lockdowns had changed the way employers worked, with many moving to remote or flexible arrangements. He said while this change granted opportunities for people to have a better work-life balance, it “also inadvertently blurred the lines between work and home life.”

“We will bring in a ‘right to switch off’, so working from home does not become homes turning into 24/7 offices,” he promised.

Progress on the Make Work Pay plan started in mid-August, when Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds convened a meeting with senior representatives from business organisations and trade unions to discuss workers’ rights and the proposed Employment Rights Bill.

Work From Home

When the government enforced the first lockdowns in 2020, closing businesses and other places of employment, many industries which could do so moved employees to telecommuting.

More than four years later, employers are still trying to move staff back into the office, at times leading to disputes with workers’ organisations.

Since May, members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have refused to follow a management directive to spend at least two days in the office. The union said while many staff already willingly spend more than two days a week in person at work, they oppose mandatory attendance.

The some 1,200 members based at ONS offices in London, Newport in Wales, Titchfield in Hampshire, Darlington, Manchester, and Edinburgh have also refused to work overtime since Aug. 27.

This week, the PCS said members are being reballoted on whether to continue industrial action, with their strike mandate running out next month.

PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote said the mandatory workplace attendance regime “does nothing to improve productivity but everything to disrupt the lives of ONS staff, who were led to believe they could continue to work from home indefinitely.”

Heathcote said that strike action had allowed its members to continue their current flexible working arrangements “without damaging the organisation’s outputs.”

In 2022, Jacob Rees-Mogg undertook a drive to get civil servants back into Whitehall, writing to fellow Cabinet ministers and calling on them to issue a directive to staff about a “rapid return to the office.”

Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson—who had issued the pandemic shutdown mandates—backed Rees-Mogg’s efforts, with his official spokesman saying at the time, “What the minister is seeking to achieve is to do everything possible to get the civil service to return to the pre-pandemic level.”

PA Media contributed to this report.