If unpaid overtime work carried out by the seven million employed in the Netherlands were converted into full-time jobs, unemployment would be cut by half, the FNV, the country’s largest trade union, said on Tuesday.

The FNV said employers receive an annual €20bn ‘gift’ from their staff in the form of unpaid overtime and that would translate into 300,000 extra full-time jobs. The FNV carried out its survey jointly with the Dutch institute for applied research TNO.

Employees in the Netherlands average three hours a week in unpaid overtime work which expressed in money terms is worth €3,200 a year. The figure is even higher for the better educated but less educated workers tend to be compensated for their overtime work, the report said.