TV comics nowadays invariably make jokes about lazy workers, usually car workers. there are 2.25m have no option but to be 'lazy -the unemployed. But when you examine the facts rather than the myths and the cheap jibes it's easy to see that, far from being 'lazy', British workers have the longest hours in West Europe and do the most overtime.
For the bosses there is money to be made that way. Far cheaper to get your existing workers to do overtime than employ far easier to keep down basic rates when wages include a sizeable overtime payment.
Average Let's first look at average hours worked by manual workers. For men in Britain the figure is 46.2 hours a week. This compares with: Germany 41.9 hours; France 41.1; Netherlands 41; Luxemburg Italy 38.9; and Belgium 37.1.
Lazy workers!
Of course, workers who manual parts. another worker. And 40.3;
the strongest trade union movement, British workers put in much longer hours than their West European counterOvertime The figures show an average of 4 hours overtime for all male workers. This is the breakdown in some of the basic industries:
TOTAL HOURS Shipbuilding 47.0 Mining 43.6 Food, drink 47.8 Metal manufacture 44:5 Electrical engineering 44.3 Chemicals 45.6 Bricks, pottery, glass 47.5 recession. meant that down appreciably maining harder.
Total
OVERTIME® 6.6 Tor total 6.0 8.0 Europe: Britain, 4.7 5.6 7.0 There are many industries which are not so bad, particularly those hit by the But the recession working nours have gone employers are shedding labour and trying to make the reworkers work longer The long hours of workers in Britain can best be seen by looking at the figures manual workers in engineering in West 1902; Switzerland, 1827; Germany, 1762; Denmark, 1725; France, 1706; Austria, 1703; Italy, 1678; 1622; Belgium, 1611; Sweden, 1513.
Engineering workers in Britain work Urgent for a shorter working week negotiators, trick.
hasn't and overnight.
Ine tacts And there's one other thing get lower pay.
the EEC Holland, What do all these figures show? They reveal that a constant dropping of claims by union particularly in engineering. is leaving Britain way behind. Continen. tal workers work shorter hours and have much longer holidays. In this time of in. flation, trading hours for money is a con.
The figures point to the urgent need to renew the campaign for a shorter work. ing week with no loss of pay. If British working hours were brought into line with those on the Continent, hundreds of thousands of new jobs could be created Next time you hear someone talk about lazy British workers, just point out that British workers work longer hours and have shorter holidays we also Figures revealed a few months ago by Commission snow that only workers in Ireland have lower wages than those of British workers, and that average wages in France are half again as much as those in Britain. Average pay in West Germany is twice that in Britain.
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Why we need a loss of pay