NEARLY one in five women employed full-time work an extra 10 or more hours a week, the majority doing so because they cannot complete the workload within normal working hours.

A report to be released tomorrow by the Community and Public Sector Union, which surveyed more than 9000 women mainly in the federal and state public sector and government-owned businesses, warns that employers may be placing unreasonable expectations on their workforce.

Some 44 per cent said they worked the extra hours to get the work done, and 33 per cent to get the job finished at an acceptable standard. Underlining the importance of flexible work hours, more than a quarter of women worked the extra hours so they could lift their flex time - which they then took off as leave.

The report, What Women Want, said the working hours designated in workplace agreements did not reflect actual hours worked.

In the most recent survey, 89.9 per cent of full-time female employees reported working additional hours a week, up from 83.6 per cent in 2009.

The lines between home and work are further blurring, with the report showing a sharp increase in people being contacted outside work hours, by email, mobile phones and smartphones: about 41 per cent reported being contacted outside work hours.