A critical chance goes begging

May 11 2009 By Kevin Rowan, The Journal

WHAT a disappointment it was that on Workers Memorial Day last month talks on working time regulations between members of the European Parliament and ministers broke down, leaving UK workers exposed to risks to their health not endured by other parts of the European Union.

In the UK workers can ‘opt-out’ of a law which stops them, not from working more than 48 hours per week, but which seeks to prevent workers from enduring an average of over 48 hours working on a consistent basis – hardly earth shattering.

It is hard to understand the arguments for retaining the opt-out.

Certainly, it does nothing for business. All of the evidence shows that workers’ productivity dips significantly when working such long hours, especially over a prolonged period of time.

Serious ill-health consequences are directly associated with our long-hours culture, particularly stress-related and cardiovascular illnesses, often meaning that workers end up being ‘burnt out’ and leaving their jobs early and in many cases leaving the workplace altogether, at significant personal cost to themselves and also often at significant cost to their employer.

At this particular time, when many employers are negotiating shorter working arrangements to cope with the downturn, it does seem ironic that so much effort is going in to enable this dangerous long-hours culture to persist.

Working patterns are getting worse, not better, in many cases. Around four million people work an average of more than 48 hours a week – that’s more than when the Working Time Directive was introduced, with the biggest increase being among white collar workers, the worst record in Europe.

Some of this is lack of awareness. Only one in three people know that they can ‘opt in’ to these legal protections, although we know many fear the reaction of their employer if they do. A quarter of workers enduring long hours say they have not been given a choice and at least 60% say they would work fewer hours if they could.

Long hours are so anti-social that the Samaritans report that over a third of all callers with ‘stress’ cite their jobs as the cause, while four out of five mothers whose partner works more than 48 hours a week want them to reduce their working time.

Workers Memorial Day is a time when trade unions in particular remember those workers who have died or been injured or suffered ill-health as a result of their work.

It is the case that the majority of employers do value highly and take seriously the health and wellbeing of their employees.

It is hugely regrettable when some employers don’t, the consequences are so dire, but we can at least understand their flawed motivation of maximising profit – although ultimately this will bite the worst employers back quite severely.

What is less forgivable and much harder to comprehend is the approach of elected Government ministers who claim to serve the people, yet continue to condemn them to risks of future ill-health.

Kevin Rowan is regional secretary of the Northern TUC.