Australians undergo 2-month unpaid overtime on average every year: Aussie survey

Source: Xinhua| 2018-11-21 12:21:24|Editor: mmm
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CANBERRA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Australians are working an average of 2-month unpaid overtime every year, according to a report published by think tank the Australia Institute on Wednesday.

A total of 1,459 Australians being interviewed in the survey revealed that respondents worked an average of 6-hour unpaid overtime every week, up from 5.1 hours in 2017 and 4.6 hours in 2016.

The figure represents 106 billion Australian dollars (76.4 billion U.S. dollars) in free labour for the nation's employers every year, authors Troy Henderson and Tom Swann said.

"This widespread non-payment for so much of Australians' working time reduces family incomes, weakens consumer spending, and exacerbates the challenge of work-life balance," the two authors said.

"In an era of wage stagnation, underemployment, insecure work and significant cost of living pressures, Australian workers cannot afford to give their time away to employers for free," the two authors added.

The findings were released by the Australian Institute on the 10th anniversary of Go Home on Time Day, on which Australians were encouraged to leave their place of employment on time.

The two authors found that men had averaged 7.04 hours of unpaid overtime per week, compared to 4.15 hours per week for women.

Self-employed Australians have been reported as the most unpaid overtime group with an average of 8.39 hours per week, followed by full-time workers with an average of 7.07 hours and part-time workers with an average of 4.15 hours.

Australia's Fair Work Act limits the maximum hours of work per week at 38 hours and dictates that workers can refuse to work "unreasonable" additional hours.

However, the act does not define what constitutes "unreasonable" additional hours.

"Today we ask that all Australians go home on time and try to limit the unpaid overtime they work," the author Troy Henderson told the Guardian Australia on Wednesday.

"Time theft takes many forms, including employees staying late, coming in early, working through their lunch or other breaks, taking work home on evenings and weekends or being contacted to perform work out of hours," he added.

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