Workers do not take full leave

Most workers will not take their full holiday entitlement this year and those who do go away are putting in long hours to finish projects, a new survey revealed today.

Just 40% of the 5,000 people questioned said they would take their full entitlement this year. But two thirds believed colleagues would be happy to take on extra work while they were on holiday.

Workers were putting in an extra nine hours in the days before taking a break, rising to 17 hours for directors.

One in five, questioned by employment website reed.co.uk, thought they suffered from stress because of the extra work they were putting in.

Half feared something would go wrong at work while they were on holiday - the same proportion worried about work while they were away. One in 10 said they were concerned about being made redundant.

Employment agency Manpower claims Britons work the longest hours out of all European nations. The average worker spends 43.6 hours a week in the office, compared with about 40 hours in the rest of the EU.

The Institute of Directors disagrees, saying the average UK week is 39.6 hours for full-time men and 34.4 hours for women.

Last year businesses paid out £11.6 billion to cover the wages of staff who were off sick, according to research by the CBI. The average cost was £476 per employee, but many companies believed up to 15% of absence was not genuine.