Teachers and lecturers most likely to clock up unpaid overtime, says report

The figures, released by the TUC, revealed that over half (55.6%) of teaching professionals do unpaid overtime each week and, on average, put in an extra 9.6hours. Overall, one in five people (21.1%) does unpaid overtime and, on average, they put in an extra 7.2hours a week.

The TUC's analysis revealed that new starters were more likely to do more unpaid overtime than people who had been in the job for a while. Workers in the first year of a job averaged 8.4 hours of unpaid overtime a week.

However, the figures also revealed that the proportion of older people working unpaid overtime has increased in the last 10 years. The proportion of people aged 55-59 who do unpaid overtime has shot up by 31.1% since 2001, and the proportion of 60-64-year-olds putting in unpaid hours has increased by 45.4%.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Today's figures confirm that our teachers and lecturers continue to go above and beyond the call of duty for their pupils and students. The government cannot keep expecting more for less from such dedicated people, particularly when their reward is real-terms pay cuts and attacks on their pensions.'

Today marks the TUC's Work Your Proper Hours Day - the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid overtime at the start of the year. More details are available at www.workyourproperhoursday.com.

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