Over half of Britons believe governments should not restrict the number of hours that employees can work, a new survey has found.

Some 52 per cent of British adults did not favour curbs to working hours, according to a Financial Times/Harris poll.

In response to the findings, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: "Attitudes to working time protection crucially depend on how the question is asked.

"People do want protection against excess working hours that damage their health and relationships, even when poor pay forces them to notch up maximum overtime to provide a decent living standard."

Stakeholder Response: Amicus

Roger Jeary, director of research for Amicus, told ePolitix.com: "The questions posed by this survey on hours and retirement age are geared to create a response which has more to do with attitudes towards political influence on workers' rights rather than providing the interpretation that the FT/Harris poll has placed that workers want to work longer. 

"The undermining of occupational pensions provision and the inadequate salary rewards of many are the real economic factors which will drive workers to the conclusion that they have to work longer in order to support themselves and their families.

"If you were to pose the question to workers 'Do you prefer working longer hours to having more leisure time?' then the response would be more likely to reflect the reality that few would choose to work longer hours or more years if economically they did not have to.

"Amicus believes that the government can take little comfort from this poll or that it supports their continued defence of the opt-out from the working time directive."

Stakeholder Response: CIPD

Commenting on the findings, Gerwyn Davies, author of the 'Calling time on working time?' report, said: "This research chimes with our own survey of more than 750 organisations which shows that long hours workers are opposed to the removal of the opt-out and in particular any moves to restrict their freedom to choose to work long hours. 

"The issue of long hours working is complex, deep-seated and ingrained in the culture of organisations and cannot be addressed by a uniform ban. 

"The negative effects of long hours working are well-known , but these are best solved by employer measures such as flexible working arrangements rather than a blanket ban on long hours working."

"Our research shows that  three-quarters of those who work more than 48 hours a week do so largely as a result of their own choice rather than employer compulsion. 

"Senior managers and professionals, who are those most likely to be able to make informed choices about their hours, are most likely to work beyond the 48-hour limit."