With the clocks due to go back on Sunday as British Summer Time ends, commuters may be able to snatch a few hours of sun during their day.

But with an early commute still a major part of most employees' lives, there have been calls for bosses to implement more remote or home working practices in order to protect their workers from being casualties on dark winter roads.

Non-profit group Work Wise highlighted official figures for road deaths during the winter months, which found that 20 per cent more pedestrians were killed in the winter last year and 12 per cent more car users were either killed or seriously injured.

But the campaign group argued that these could be reduced if firms were willing to vary their standard working times, condense hours into nine-day fortnights or upgrade their IT support to allow home or remote working.

"Workers here already have the second longest average daily commute in Europe: in many cases adding an entire working day each week," said Work Wise chief executive Paul Flaxton.

"Add to this the misery, tension and delays of traffic congestion and overcrowding on trains, tubes and buses, and now the prospect of travelling to and from work in the dark for many months: it is no surprise that many succumb to depression and despondency."

Work Wise claimed that home working was becoming much easier due to the spread of broadband to nine million UK households so far, which means office IT systems could be securely accessed over the web using an IP virtual private network.

The group claimed: "If all commuters could work just one day a week at home, commuter numbers would fall 20 per cent. This would reduce road congestion and public transport over-crowding significantly."