Research has revealed that long working hours are beginning to damage family life.
A report commissioned by the TUC illustrates the frustrations felt by employees who are overworked and have less time to spend with their siblings.
The report, entitled ‘More time for families: tackling the long hours crisis in UK workplaces’ warns that six years after the Working Time Directive was introduced, there are still more employees working long hours than there were in 1992.
The Working Time Directive was introduced to cap working hours, a major benefit for family members, however UK employees can work over 48 hours by signing an opt-out agreement, with many being forced to do so by their employers.
Although many small business with limited staff may seek to impose longer working hours, many parents are unable to spend time with their children or enjoy family activities at the weekend.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, “Excessive working hours are bad news for everyone and especially damaging for workers with families.
“Whilst ministers remain wedded to the idea of maintaining the UK’s individuals opt-out, the children of long hours parents are suffering. A clamp down on employers abusing working time rules and the removal of the opt-out would prove very popular with working parents.”
A survey conducted by the charity Working Families, illustrates the problem faced by mums and dads struggling to put the hours in at work.
Of the 89 responding parents, more than four in ten said that they regularly had to work more than 48 hours, with nine in ten believing these hours to be harmful to families.
Almost eight in ten parents asked employers whether they could work flexibly, yet only 40 per cent of these parents were aware of the legal right to ask for a change in their hours.
The report goes on to criticise flexible working rules, introduced in April 2004, as too weak and that employment tribunals covering the issue have limited powers to question the motives of employers.
With 32 per cent of requests for shorter working hours rejected, many parents are forced to juggle a long and gruelling work life with a hectic home life.
Sarah Jackson, Working Families Chief Executive, said, “We know that parents are struggling to find a balance between work and family life even on a 35 hour week.
“Callers to our help-line tell us of the desperate problems it causes when employers require them to work long hours. Employees need the right to say no to long hours working, and employers need to recognise how much better it is for business to work smarter, not longer.”
