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Workload crisis – 11.2 hours of unpaid overtime a week

Pay and conditions Workload Trade unions
Teachers are once again at the top of the list of those working unpaid overtime in the UK.

The annual Work Your Proper Hours Day research shows that across the UK, 3.8 million people did unpaid overtime in 2021, putting in an average of 7.6 unpaid hours a week.

Work Your Proper Hours Day is a campaign run by the TUC and it marks the day each year when the average worker doing unpaid overtime effectively stops working for free. This year it fell on February 25.

The TUC’s findings for 2021 show that teachers and school leaders who put in unpaid overtime are doing an average of 11.2 hours a week. This is behind only logistics and transport directors (12.3 hours) and chief executives (11.5 hours).

London has the highest proportion of workers doing unpaid overtime, at 18.1%, compared to around 13.5% nationally.

The TUC says labour shortages in parts of the economy and the rising cost of living is “likely to mean that many people are working more intensely for shrinking real pay packets”.

The Department for Education’s latest teacher workload survey, published in autumn 2019, shows that teachers and middle leaders reported working 49.5 hours a week (50 hours in primary schools but 49.1 in secondary schools).

Furthermore, primary teachers and middle leaders report working an average of 12.5 hours during weekends and evenings, while this figure for secondary colleagues is 13.1 hours (DfE, 2019).

However, research from the UCL Institute of Education in 2019 found that one in four teachers report working 60 hours or more a week (Allen et al, 2019).

And more recent research published by Education Support in November 2021 finds that 28% of teachers and 66% of school leaders are working more than 51 hours a week on average.

Whatever figures one uses, the pandemic has undoubtedly led to increased workload for teaching staff and school leadership. In February, research published by the NASUWT and involving almost 12,000 teachers found that 90% have experienced more work-related stress in the last year; 91% report a decline in their mental health due to their work; and 64% report a decline in their physical health due to their work. Tellingly, 52% said that workload has been the main factor for increased work-related stress.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Most of us are happy to put in some extra time when it’s needed, but we should get that time back when it’s quieter. Nobody should end up doing work they don’t get paid for.”

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of NASUWT, added: “Teachers yet again rank among the professions working the highest number of hours. The pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated the problem of excessive workload within teaching still further.

“At the same time, teachers are working far in excess of their contracted hours for what, in real terms, amounts to less pay, thanks to the government’s decision to impose a pay freeze on the profession for 2021/22.”

The NASUWT research cited above also finds that half of the responding teachers said that their school does not provide flexible working opportunities.

Dr Roach pointed to the catch-22 situation this creates for some teachers: “Teachers wanting or needing to reduce their hours, in some cases as a direct consequence of the impact of excessive workload and working hours on their health and wellbeing, often face significant barriers.

“Member casework reveals that even where flexible working is offered, the reality is often very far from supportive or sufficient to meet teachers’ needs and offer them a genuine work/life balance.”