A majority of European workers still view their weekends as sacred, according to a Monster poll.

It found that 20% of European workers have to work at the weekends, 12% work every weekend, 9% said they work at the weekends once a month. It found that 20% work a few weekends a year, while 39% said they never work at weekends.

A majority of employees in France, Belgium, UK and Ireland view the weekends as especially sacred.

The highest reporting of regularly working weekends in addition to their normal hours came from respondents in Germany (16%), Switzerland (14%) and Austria (13%). 

The UK had the highest percentage (26%) of respondents whose jobs meant they always work weekends, followed by 23% in Ireland and 22% in Austria. France showed the lowest percentage in this category, with only 15% responding that their jobs demanded weekend working.