A new survey has found that Australians are working more than two billion hours of unpaid overtime a year, totalling just over $72 billion dollars.
The online survey conducted by the Australian Institute found that a typical full-time employee is working 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day, which equates to 33 eight-hour days per year.
In addition, 45 percent of workers, and more than half all full-time employees, work more hours than they are paid for on a typical workday; while 43 percent said overtime was “not expected” but also “not discouraged.”
Institute executive director Richard Denniss said the amount of unpaid overtime worked in Australia is the equivalent of 1.1 million full-time jobs.
“While Australians might have a reputation for taking ‘sickies’ and ‘smokos’, the evidence suggests otherwise,” he said.
In response to its findings, the institute has nominated November 25 as national Go Home On Time Day. On this day, the Instutite is encouraging workers to postpone all last minute tasks and register for a ‘leave pass’ at www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/
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