Jean Lambert, London’s Green Party MEP, is backing the TUC’s Work Your Proper Hours Day this Friday February 27, the annual event which aims to ensure employees remember – and claim – their rights in the workplace.
Over five million people in the UK regularly work unpaid overtime, handing their employers £26.9 billion in free work. Jean Lambert is supporting the TUC’s call for workers to claim back some of this time for themselves this Friday.
She said:
“All of us share very real concerns about what lies ahead for the fragile economy. While we want to ensure that we can continue to support ourselves and our dependents through these difficult times, we mustn’t make life even harder by piling on further pressure at work. Extra hours leave employees tired and drained and pose a risk to their health – and they don’t improve productivity or efficiency in the long run, either.”
Jean is a member of the Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee and a longstanding campaigner for worker’s rights. She said this year’s event was particularly important after research from the TUC last month found that a record 5.24 million people in the UK worked extra, unpaid hours last year, and the biggest increase – 79,000 – was in London, where 820,000 workers put in overtime.
“As the economic situation deteriorates, it is understandable that Londoners will feel the need to work harder and longer, particularly if they fear for the security of their job. But it’s precisely during this time of great strain that employees need to remember their rights at work.”
She also called for greater support and training for managers in handling change and stress in the workplace.
“The recession has put great pressure on managers, many of whom face the unenviable task of having to communicate and enforce difficult adjustments in the workplace. Everyone is under strain at the moment – if managers are under stress, it’s likely that this will have an impact on their staff. It is vital that the proper support networks are in place to ensure they can cope with the changes.”
For more information about Work Your Proper Hours Day, as well as advice on the work-life balance and an overtime calculator, visit http://www.worksmart.org.uk/workyourproperhoursday/.
ENDS
Jean is a member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament, a cross-party committee whose responsibilities include workers’ rights, social security, immigration and social inclusion. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Working Lives Institute at London Metropolitan University.
Jean’s report, I Must Work Harder? Britain and the Working Time Directive, highlighting the damage of ‘long-hours’ culture can exert and outlining her stand against the UK’s opt-out, was published in 2006. You can read the report here.