Employees increasingly feel compelled to work unpaid overtime, with the average Australian working more than nine hours a week.
Nearly nine in 10 workers (86 percent) worked at least some unpaid overtime each week, with the education sector accruing the most hours off on average, 12.2 per week.
Unions NSW surveyed almost 5,500 people across multiple industries and found the majority of employees (64 per cent) thought they would limit their career prospects if they did not work overtime.
Using the average Australian annual salary of $96,660, the association considered it a $21,000 donation from workers to their employers each year.
NSW Trade Unions Secretary Mark Morey called for changes to the Fair Work Act, which allows unpaid overtime if “the additional hours are reasonable”.
Nearly nine in 10 workers (86 percent) worked at least some unpaid overtime each week (file image)
He said the scale of the data showed sectors had become reliant on overtime.
“Most of the time, workers are required to work during their lunch break, arrive early and finish late, and work overtime on weekends,” he said.
‘This is affecting their physical and mental well-being, preventing them from spending time with their families and contributing to their communities…fear of reprisals, losing a promotion and threats from employers to give staff a worse workforce prevent workers from go on time. .’
Education (12.2 hours per week), agriculture, forestry and fishing (12 hours) and transportation, postal and warehousing (8.99 hours) were the sectors that performed the greatest amount of unpaid overtime.
Part-time and casual workers also contributed for free, working about 6.5 unpaid hours on average.
Two-thirds of workers felt their bosses had become dependent on unpaid overtime, and respondents worried that refusing to stay late would push them down the organizational pecking order.
Two-thirds of workers felt their bosses had become dependent on unpaid overtime, and respondents worried that refusing to stay late would hamper their career prospects.
“If I assert my right to work only during work hours, I am compared to other young singles who work longer hours to please the boss and have the support of their families,” reported one respondent.
“I feel alienated from office staff as this style of working is forced to become the norm.”
Another said management would view refusing to work unpaid hours as a “work performance issue” rather than “the work overload and harassment issue it really is.”
The study spoke to union and non-union workers between November 2023 and February 2024.
