Workers claim bosses violate overtime laws

Nearly two-thirds of hourly-paid workers in the UK believe their employers are violating overtime rules, according to a new survey.

The Kronos Global Overtime survey polled the responses from hourly workers in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, India, Mexico and the US, and found that 63% of hourly workers in the UK thought their employers regularly broke employment laws governing overtime in the UK. Almost all (88%) the hourly-paid workers in China thought that their employers were ignoring overtime guidelines, while under half (47%) of those in the US thought the same.

The Chinese hourly workers were shown to be the most aware of the governing laws surrounding out-of-hours pay, with a 96% high recorded in China compared to 72% in Australia and 74% of Britons at the other end of the scale. The survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive, also discovered that contractual obligations required the majority to work extra hours, with 68% of Indian hourly-paid workers topping the chart compared to only 20% of Canadians at the bottom of the table.

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