This briefing - by barrister Francis Hoar, a member of Field Court Chambers in Gray’s Inn - examines whether “many public sector employers have...approached ‘facility’ time in the manner envisaged by industrial relations law.”
Public sector employees are only entitled to paid or unpaid leave for trade union duties and activities if they have requested it from their employer, and if their request is reasonable. Many public sector bodies do not seem to be going through the kind of process envisaged by industrial relations law. Based on earlier TaxPayers’ Alliance research and an analysis of industrial relations law, this briefing suggests a number of problems with how facility time is currently allocated.