British workers do 84 minutes more than continent average
05 September 2008
UK employees are still working some of the longest hours in Europe, a report has found.
Full-time employees in the UK put in 41.4 hours per week, which is 1 hour and 24 minutes more than the EU average, according to the report published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
But it is Bulgarian and Romanian workers who work the longest, clocking up 18 minutes more than the UK workforce.
UK unions have been among the most effective unions in Europe at negotiating reasonable hours, with the average UK trade union agreement setting a working week of 37.3 hours.
Trade unions only make shorter agreements in two EU countries – France (35 hours) and Denmark (37 hours).
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: “UK workers are still working the longest hours in western Europe, but this is no sign of economic strength as we are stuck at the top of the league table with poor countries in eastern Europe.
“But people are clearly better off in a union as unions negotiate shorter working weeks and make managements raise their game, thus helping organisations become more productive.”
The report studied three economic sectors across the 27 EU countries: retail, chemicals and the civil service.
It was based on contributions from the European Industrial Relations Observatory national centres.