24 February Senior civil servants work 1000 hours each year in unpaid overtime

News from the FDA The union of choice for senior managers and professionals in public service 24 February 2006 [for immediate release] Senior civil servants work 1000 hours each year in unpaid overtime Almost one-third of senior civil servants work more than 11 hours per day, racking up almost 1,000 hours each in unpaid overtime each year, according to a survey conducted by the FDA, the union for senior managers and professionals in public service. Senior managers have also leapt to the top of the 2006 unpaid overtime league tables published by the TUC as part of their Work Your Proper Hours campaign today. The TUC evidence indicates that senior managers average 12 hours of unpaid overtime per week, an increase of two hours over 2005. If they were paid for their overtime, they would earn an extra £24,000 per year, according to TUC calculations. "Senior civil servants are working diligently to drive through Government's public service reforms, and in doing so, they are expected to work increasingly longer hours in unpaid overtime," says Jonathan Baume, FDA general secretary. "They are willing to give their all for public service, but we have seen how the long hours culture has adversely impacted our members, as well as presenting barriers to women who would like to progress to more senior posts. This undermines attempts to create a more diverse senior civil service, and we are taking up these concerns with Government." The FDA's research indicated that almost three quarters (70%) of senior civil servants do not believe that their department or agency has taken sufficient steps to reduce excess hours, and two-thirds (66%) do not believe that their department has introduced effective measures to facilitate work-life balance for the SCS. ### Notes for Editors 1. The joint FDA-Prospect survey of SCS members was conducted in September 2005 and results based on more than 600 responses. 2. 24 February is Work Your Proper Hours Day, the day that those who do unpaid overtime would start, on average, to get paid if they did all their unpaid work at the start of the year according to estimates from the TUC. For more information see www.workyourproperhoursday.com. 3. The TUC league tables were derived from the Labour Force Survey. See www.tuc.org for more information. 4. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing the UK?s 16,000 senior public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, diplomats, crown prosecutors and NHS managers. 5. The FDA is known simply as "The FDA" and described as "the senior public servants? union". 6. For further information contact: ? Jessica Stark, FDA head of communications, tel. 020 7343 1120 or 07967 484 441 e. jessica@fda.org.uk ? Ben Hurley, TUC media office, tel. 020 7467 1248 or: 07881 622416 e. bhurley@tuc.org.uk