Union Urges Workers to Go Home On Time

25 November 2009

The Union representing thousands of white-collar workers in Queensland has today urged clerical, administrative and call centre workers to Go Home On Time as part of a national push to address the extremely high rates of unpaid overtime being worked in Australia.

Australian Services Union Branch Secretary Julie Bignell said, “This report shows that Australians work well beyond the hours typically worked by other developed nations, and a shocking amount of that work is not actually paid for by those who benefit from it. We’ve allowed a culture to develop where vast numbers of workers can’t get enough work with the same employer to live on, and forgo opportunities for advancement, because a large number of workers feel they have no choice but to donate the equivalent of six and a half standard working weeks per year back to their employer.”

“What we do have is an opportunity for employers to recognise that they can make a significant contribution to the economy and to the quality of people’s lives by turning these unpaid hours into permanent jobs,” said Ms Bignell.

According to the report by The Australia Institute, the typical full-time employee is working 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day, which equates to 33 eight-hour days per year, or six and a half standard working weeks.

Something for nothing – unpaid overtime in Australia examines the nature, extent and consequences of Australia’s heavy reliance on unpaid overtime. According to the report’s authors, across the workforce, the 2.14 billion hours of unpaid overtime worked per year is a $72 billion gift to employers and means that 6% of our economy depends on free labour.

The Australia Institute’s survey also found:

• Forty-five per cent of Australian workers, and more than half of all full-time

employees, work more hours than they are paid for on a typical workday.

• 44 per cent of people who work unpaid overtime said that it is ‘compulsory’ or ‘expected’ and another 43 per cent said that it is ‘not expected, but also not

discouraged’.

• Australians work three times more hours of unpaid overtime than they volunteer to community organisations.

The  Australia Institute has nominated November 25 as national Go Home On Time Day. Workers are being encouraged to postpone all last minute tasks and register for a ‘leave pass’ at www.gohomeontimeday.org.au – Unions are backing the report and urging their members to make a symbolic step towards addressing the issue by going home on time today.