Overworked, unpaid

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has heard final 
submissions on the ACTU's Reasonable Hours test case aimed at giving 
Australian workers more control over the burgeoning amount of overtime they 
are required to work.

In just the last 12 months full-time employees averaged 42 hours a week, 
nearly two and a half hours more compared with the previous year, according 
to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

The ACTU says Australia has the second longest working hours out of the 
OECD group of countries, with a quarter of the workforce working more than 
50 hours per week.

Also, increasing numbers of workers are not being paid for the overtime 
they put in, and "casualisation" has resulted in more workers not having 
access to paid holiday and sick leave.

"This test case is the first serious review of Australia's working hours in 
over half a century and is long overdue", said ACTU Secretary Greg Combet. 
"If the ACTU succeeds, people working excessive overtime will be entitled 
to two days break and will establish flexible guidelines on unreasonable 
hours."

Excessive hours currently being worked include:

* Only 36.5 percent of the workforce work a standard week and this figure 
is on the decline;

* Numerous studies have demonstrated the adverse health and safety effects 
of working more than 48 hours per week;

* More than 20 per cent of Australian employees work unpaid overtime;

* Only 36.5 per cent of the workforce work a standard week and this figure 
is on the decline;

* Numerous studies have demonstrated the adverse health and safety effects 
of working more than 48 hours per week;

* Since 1966 the number of part-timers has risen as a percentage of the 
workforce from 10 per cent to 24.8 percent.