Nov 2011 25

If facility time cuts strikes, what is happening in the public sector?7

Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis has responded to our report showing the unions getting a £113 million backdoor subsidy.  He claims that the facility time reduces industrial strife, and leads to fewer strikes. If that was the case, then surely the public sector – where staff take three times as much in facility time – would see fewer strikes? After all, public sector workers are also better paid and get better pensions. It doesn’t work out that way:

The data on the relative number of strike days lost per worker are from our research last year. You can see the same thing with the ridiculous claim that having hundreds of staff working for the union, instead of the public service, improves public service productivity:

The data on productivity compares the market sector and the major public services. It is taken from the Economic and Labour Market review produced by the Office for National Statistics.

Either something else is going catastrophically wrong in the public sector, and things would be even worse without huge amounts spent on facility time, or union staff paid for at taxpayers’ expense aren’t associated with an efficient workplace.  We shouldn’t fear ‘pay up, or we’ll strike’ threats from the union bosses.  And our past experience with Dave Prentis shows that he isn’t above misleading the media and the public:

Related Posts

  • Blarg1987

    Having looked a the report what major public services and market sector are compared?

    Is it the banking sector where there is high rewards therefore strikes are less likely or the minimum wage employees at restuarents etc who are not allowed to join a trade union?

    A graph can be made to display whatever it wants to if the appropiate data is put in.

    A fairer assesment would be comparing LIKE for LIKE, such as a public teacher and a private teacher as well as nurses etc who do get paid more as agency staff then their public secot counterparts.

    I accept it is good to publish data and at least you have been up front where it has come from, however the underlying comparison could be flawed.

    • Joe Public

      I quite agree with your point…unfortunately TPA can’t seem to separate their arguments from politics.

  • Brianesmith

    The points about comparatives are well made but what should really happen is that the public sector should be compared with the SME segment of the private sector and not with the large bureaucracies that make up a lot of the rest.
    Behaviour in a large insurance company or bank is no different from the behaviour in large public sector bureaucracies.
    The trade union activities highlighted here are just a small part of the massive underperformance - or over-employment – that exists in central and local government.
    Each body taking public money should have to identify a local panel of SMEs and produce comparative data on timekeeping, attendance, output, indirect activites (like trade union stuff) and so on. 
    The figues would be striking!

    • Blarg1987

      I partially agree with you, but it would have to be organisations that employ simular numbers of people and have a simular amount of regulation, most Local Authorities have to follow legislation to the letter which sum SME’s do tend to ignore for convenience and not as open to accountability. Ideally if both the private and public sector are fully open then it would be a step in the right direction for real comparisons.

  • Anonymous

    @8338cdf3f8eadaf36c2b9fec67c0a56b:disqus …..Саn`t bеlеivе…..Му аunt is mакing $ 69 реr hоur оn hеr соmрutеr. Аftеr bеing lаid оff 9 mоnths аgо, shе nоw еаrns mоrе thаn $5000 а mоnth. Аll frоm hеrе……http://alturl.com/fpyg6

  • Hampshirehog

    Not only are we taxpayers funding the salaries of union workers in the public sector,  we are fuyrther funding their public service pensions.   Not only should the taxpayer NOT fund union workers salaries, any pension accrued during such work should be funded by the Union and it’s members.

  • Foolsgold Gordo

    Union work should be to consult with the employer to reduce strikes in disputes between employees and the company.  These strikes are against an intransigent government hell bent on doleing out benefits while forcing the workers to pay for it.  On the one hand the workers, after years of having their pensions plunderd, don’t see why they should fund benefits anymore.  While the government want to pay more nad more to the unemployed (possibly to stop them rioting again).  It looks like they are going to get riots if they carry on with this policy though!