In Montenegro, there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of employees working overtime in recent years. According to Eurostat figures, the percentage of workers putting in extra hours increased from 9.7% in 2011 to 13.2% in 2019, as reported by Al Jazeera Balkans.
Comparatively, in the previous year, 7.1% of employees across the European Union were engaged in overtime work in their primary job.
Eurostat defines overtime as working 49 or more hours per week.
Among EU nations, Greece recorded the highest proportion of workers logging overtime at 11.6%, followed by Cyprus (10.4%) and France (10.1%).
Conversely, Bulgaria (0.4%), Lithuania, and Latvia (both 1.1%) reported the lowest incidence of overtime work within the EU.
For the UK, the most recent available data, from 2019, showed that 14.1% of employees were working overtime.
Turkey, although not part of the EU average, exhibited the highest overtime rates, with over a quarter of its workforce (27.2%) engaged in overtime.
Slovenia and Croatia, two EU members, reported figures below the overall average, with 5.5% and 3.8% of employees respectively working overtime.
In 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw 7.2% of its workforce engaged in overtime, while in Serbia, the figure stood at 8.3%. The latest available data for Montenegro and North Macedonia, from 2020, indicated that 12.1% and 4.2% of employees respectively worked overtime.
North Macedonia observed a notable decline in overtime work from 15.4% in 2010 to a third of that percentage in 2020. Slovenia and Croatia also saw reductions in overtime work over the same period.
Interestingly, Montenegro bucked the trend, experiencing an increase from 9.7% in 2011 to 13.2% in 2019 in the percentage of employees working overtime.
Eurostat data for Bosnia and Herzegovina is only available from 2021, with no significant deviation from previous percentages.
