Employees lose €44,000 by working through lunch

Employees in Belgium are giving away €1,000 a year of unpaid work by failing to take a proper lunch break, a new study has claimed.

Six out of 10 workers say they do not take their full lunch break entitlement. The average company allows 40 minutes - but the average employee stops work for just 22 minutes.

The findings are based on a survey of 5,000 people in Belgian companies. According to human resources firm StepStone, over a typical 45-year career, workers are giving away €44,000 of their time.

Seven out of 10 respondents who did not take a proper lunch break said they did so because they had too much work. The majority of them reported eating at their desks.

Another 15% skipped lunch so they could go home earlier - and 15% said they did not consider the midday break to be important.

According to StepStone, there is a regional difference in lunch break policy: 28% of respondents in Wallonia felt pressure from management to not take a proper break, compared with 13% in Flanders.