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More than one in eight British employees is now working more than 48 hours a week, a new report has claimed.

The TUC, which produced the study, said the "disturbing" finding suggested people were working longer hours – reversing a slow but steady ten-year decline in the number of employees working more than the maximum level stipulated by European regulations.

In London the proportion of staff working more than 48 hours a week is even higher, with as many as one in six workers in the capital clocking up such hours.

The TUC said an analysis of official figures showed 3.2 million people in Britain were now working over 48 hours a week – representing 13.1 per cent of the country's total workforce.

According to the union organisation, the figures suggest a core of bad employers are "taking no notice" of either the law or government calls over the need to achieve a greater work-life balance for employees.

Under European working time regulations employees are protected from working more than an average 48-hour week, but in the UK and some other countries employers can ask staff to opt out of the rules.

Previous TUC research has suggested the procedure is being abused by employers, with the organisation now making a fresh plea to ministers to close identified loopholes in the system which it says make the idea of a voluntary opt-out "a joke".

Commenting on the report TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "These are very disturbing numbers.

"No-one should forget that 48 hours is six eight-hour days - more than enough for anyone every week."

"There is undoubted abuse of the law, but employers know they can get away with it because it is rarely enforced," Mr Barber concluded.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was unavailable for comment.