EU to clamp down on UK long hours working culture

It's a fact that UK workers put in the most hours at work in Europe. But if the EC has its way, that could be all change.

While techies are well-known for their long-hours culture – often clocking up more than their contracted time with the unwritten code of conduct making evening and weekend work the norm – the IT industry could be in for a shake-up. Anna Diamontopoulou, EC commissioner for employment and social affairs, singled out the UK for abusing its workers' rights and plans are now afoot at the EC to sort the problem through legal avenues.

The EU working time directive states that a 48 hour working week should be the maximum for European workers, but silicon.com's own Skills Survey 2003 revealed that more than one in ten of Britain's IT workers are regularly clocking up 50 hours and more a week.

Breaking the 48 hour limit isn't illegal – UK workers can sign a waiver giving up their rights to a shorter working week – but it's not popular with the European Commission, who are seeking to deal with UK employers who think they can exploit their workers' rights, unless British employers themselves take action to tackle the issue first.

A "culture of presentee-ism" is a problem in some offices, according to Beatrice Rogers, head of private sector at ICT trade organisation Intellect. "In some cases, people are scared to leave their desk. That doesn't benefit the employee and it doesn't benefit the employer. You won't be productive if you just sit at your desk and play solitaire," she said.

It's not an office culture that makes economic sense, however. "Working long hours doesn't mean higher productivity... workers need to have a good work life balance to be productive," Rogers added.

Nevertheless, a blanket ban on long hours isn't the answer. As beleaguered techies will be more than happy to testify, there are some weeks and some projects that simply do need more time stuck behind a desk, coding furiously or migrating data centres when no-one else is around.

It's something the EU should take that into account when legislating. "In the IT industry, there's a need for flexible working. Some weeks, 40 hours is enough but with some big projects you really need to push....you need to have the ability to opt in and to opt out," Rogers said.

One of the suggestions on the table from the EC is a 40 hour week – still a poor cousin to the French's 35-hour slack-fest – which is likely to go down well with UK workers. The DTI's figures have shown that eight out of ten British workers would like less time at work and more time at home with their family. Shocking, that.