WORKERS in the North-East gave their employers £729 million of free labour last year, according to a report published today.

The corresponding figure for Yorkshire and Humberside was £2 billion.

Analysis by the TUC found 151,311 people in the North-East put in an average of 6.6 hours a week of unpaid overtime during 2016 - worth a £4,818 a year on the average wage.

There was an average 7.7 hours unpaid overtime worked in Yorkshire and Humberside, worth £5,614.

Today (Friday, February 24) is the TUC’s 13th annual Work Your Proper Hours Day. Prior to today, the average person doing unpaid overtime has effectively worked the year so far for free.

To mark the day, the TUC is asking workers to take a proper lunch break and leave on time and says firms must stop relying on unpaid overtime.

Beth Farhat, TUC Regional Secretary for the North East, said: “Few of us mind putting in extra time when it’s needed. But if it happens all the time and gets taken for granted, that’s a problem.

“The best bosses understand that a long hours culture doesn’t get good results.”

The TUC is also warning that Brexit may threaten working time protections, currently guaranteed by EU law.

Bill Adams, TUC Regional Secretary for Yorkshire and Humberside, added: "The government still doesn't have a water-tight plan to stop working time protections getting weaker when we leave the EU. The Prime Minister should promise to put a guarantee into our future trade deals with Europe that British workers will have a level playing field with EU workers."

Key Findings

Gender: The TUC study reveals nationally men work 1.2 billion unpaid overtime hours a year, compared to a billion for women. Around one in five (19.9%) men work unpaid overtime, averaging 8.3 hours a week compared with 19.75 of women. Despite the fact many women work part-time, their average hours for unpaid overtime is 7.1 a week

Age: People in their 40s are the most likely to work extra - with more than one in four (26%).

Public sector: Public sector workers contributed £12.2 billion of unpaid overtime last year. Public sector employees make up a quarter (25.7%) of total employees but produce a third (36.3%) of all unpaid overtime.

Occupations: On an individual basis, chief executives work most unpaid hours on average each week (13.1 hours). They are closely followed by teachers and education professionals (12.1), followed by financial institution managers (11.3), production managers (10.3), functional managers such as financial, marketing, and personnel managers (10) and health and care service managers (10). More unpaid hours are worked in total by teachers and education professionals (729,652) than any other.