The National Union of Journalists has backed a campaign encouraging workers to take their breaks.
The union is calling on journalists to take a proper lunch break and leave on time today as part of ‘Work Your Hours Day’, a campaign by the Trade Union Congress.
According to the TUC, more than 5.3 million people put in an average of 7.7 hours a week in unpaid overtime during 2016.
The union says this is equivalent to an average of £6,301 they have each missed out in their annual pay packets.
Michelle Stanistreet, pictured above left, NUJ general secretary, said: “Unpaid overtime and long-hours is a chronic problem in the media and creative industries.
“The NUJ is campaigning on this issue in many of our workplaces and we are pressing media employers to recognise the detrimental effects of unpaid overtime, which is often exacerbated by staff shortages and job cuts.
“By the very nature of their roles journalists tend to be flexible but that flexibility should not be abused or taken for granted by employers.
“Employers need to be mindful of the health implications of requiring staff to work excessive hours. Today is the opportunity for NUJ members to highlight the issues associated with excessive work.”
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Really?!
Come on NUJ, surely you can do better than this. Members (and employers) deserve more. Much more.
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7.7 hours a week, eh? “The union says this is equivalent to an average of £6,301 they have each missed out in their annual pay packets.”
That would make an average salary around £31,000 a year.
That may be what NUJ officials pay themselves but I don’t think journos would earn anywhere near that…
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On one hand, I am pleased to see to see progress in working practices, but remember the days when I had three weeks holiday a year, worked three out of four Saturdays a month, almost all Bank Holidays, and a MINIMUM of three nights a week. I joined the `inky Profession’ in 1971 – how times have changed!!! Amazingly, they WERE happy days . . . and set really a strong work ethic in place. Very useful as one moved up the ladder to responsibility for others (including editorship). That said, as Editor, I made sure ALL my staff had a full on- hour lunch break (I, perhaps, had 20 minutes!!). The industry gone soft – as well as not doing what it should be doing to address revenue-falls (producing products people will WANT to buy – with LOCAL news from people that actually know the patch, with DECENT photos (not, frankly, embarrassingly ones sent in by people with no photographic experience, but rubbish sent in by anyone who owns a phone. Also adverts that are at a REASONABLE price to be attractive. Currently, the majority of newspaper are trying to charge local groups `silly money’ to have space in products that are losing circulation because of the owner’s lack of business acumen. They dug the hole in which they find themselves . . . but got rid of the experienced staff – like myself who had been through it (at least twice before) before asking their advice to ride the storm!!
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