Following the Trade Union Act 2016, public sector organisations have been required to publish information on facility time for trade union representatives. Facility time is when an employee takes time off from their normal role to attend to union matters.[1] Public sector employees who are trade union representatives are entitled to paid time off to undertake trade union ‘duties’ and unpaid time off to undertake union ‘activities’. This can range from negotiating pay to dealing with the internal administration of the union.[2] In some cases, public sector employees are fully ‘seconded’ from their regular job and work full time on trade union tasks while still being paid by taxpayers. These employees are entitled to the full package of pay and conditions they would have received had they been engaged in their normal role including bonuses, overtime, allowances, performance related pay, training and registration.[3]
This means that a great deal of union work is effectively being paid for by taxpayers, despite the fact that unions have substantial annual incomes and can well afford to pay members themselves. UNISON, the largest public sector trade union in the UK, collected £180 million from its members and ran a surplus in 2022-23, with reserves of over £260 million.[4] In contrast, the public sector runs at a consistent deficit with debt reaching £2.5 trillion within that same period.[5] Calling on local authorities with high levels of spending on trade union facility time to set a cap on this expenditure in April 2024, cabinet office minister Esther McVey cited the fivefold decrease in the level of facility time achieved within the civil service as an example of how public authorities can save money to keep taxes down and protect frontline services.[6]
Despite previous measures to reduce the level of facility time in the civil service such as ending the practice of civil service employees spending 100 per cent of their working hours on trade union ‘duties’ and ‘activities’,[7] the costs of facility time are still substantial within the wider public sector. This research examines the number of trade union representatives in public sector organisations and their cost to taxpayers in 2022-23. It follows work previously done by the TaxPayers’ Alliance which analysed 2020-21 data.[8] While the number of trade union representatives and spending on facility time both briefly fell from 2020-21 to 2021-22, data for 2022-23 shows that trade union facility time is once again on the rise, with the cost to taxpayers reaching a near record high.
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Key findings
- In 2022-23, there were a total of 23,592 public sector trade union representatives, an increase of 468 from 2021-22. This is the second highest number since the Cabinet Office began publishing the data in 2017-18, and the highest number ever recorded in full-time equivalent (FTE) terms.
- 1,566 public sector employees spent more than 50 per cent of their working hours on facility time, with 1,059 spending 100 per cent of their working hours on facility time, the second highest number since the data was first published.
- Public sector trade union facility time cost £96,767,665 in 2022-23. This is a £7.4 million or 8.4 per cent increase from 2021-22.
- Transport for London had the largest facility time bill, with their 881 trade union representatives costing £8,000,000 in 2022-23.
- The Department for Work and Pensions had the largest number of trade union representatives at 1,023, costing £654,413 in 2022-23.
- NHS Lothian had the largest number of trade union representatives spending 100 per cent of their working hours on facility time, 48 at a cost of almost £1.9 million in 2022-23.
- Civil service organisations had zero trade union representatives spending 100 percent of their working hours on facility time, except for the Scottish government and the Scottish Prison Service which had five and 25 employees in this category respectively.
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[1] Cabinet Office, Report trade union facility time data, 22 May 2024, www.gov.uk/guidance/report-trade-union-facility-time-data, (accessed 10 July 2024).
[3] UNISON, Securing and defending facility time for union reps, February 2022, p. 19.
[4] UNISON, Financial Statements Year ended 31 December 2023, 30 April 2024, p. 6.
[5] Office for National Statistics, Public sector finances, UK: March 2023, 25 April 2023, www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/march2023, (accessed 11 July 2024).
[6] Cabinet Office, Cabinet Office Minister writes to councils over spending on Trade Union facility time, 10 April 2024, www.gov.uk/government/news/cabinet-office-minister-writes-to-councils-over-spending-on-trade-union-facility-time, (accessed 10 Jul 2024).
[7] Cabinet Office, Consultation on reform to Trade Union facility time and facilities in the Civil Service, 8 October 2012, p. 8.
[8] Friend, D., Public sector trade union facility time, TaxPayers’ Alliance, June 2022, www.taxpayersalliance.com/public_sector_trade_union_facility_time, (accessed 12 July 2024).