Why does the TPA care about facility time?

By: Shimeon Lee, researcher

The TPA has been at the forefront of campaigning on the issue of trade union facility time ever since we first uncovered how much trade union “pilgrims”, as they became known, were costing taxpayers in groundbreaking research we published in 2010. Our latest research reveals the cost of facility time in the latest full financial year for which we have data - a whopping £97 million in 2022-23.

But what on earth is “trade union facility time”? And secondly, why does the TPA care?

Facility time is paid time-off taken by trade union officials to carry out union duties. Trade union representatives have been entitled to take time off to carry out union ‘duties’ since the Employment Protection Act of 1975. Under the same legislation, they are also entitled to unpaid time off to undertake union ‘activities’. Union duties and activities both fall under the remit of a union representative, meaning some representatives are paid for carrying out union activities and duties.

Facility time taken by public sector employees must therefore be funded by taxpayers. That means taxpayers are forced to pay for trade union representation when unions raise significant amounts through membership subscriptions within public sector organisations. This effectively acts as a subsidy for organisations which have so frequently inflicted great hardship on those trying to access public services given the devastating levels of industrial action Britain has seen recently.

To be clear, the TPA absolutely believes that the right to strike is sacred. But that does not mean that taxpayers should be effectively funding the same bodies that organise such strikes. The sums involved are significant. Around £100 million per year is the total cost in staff time. In 2022-23, 23,592 public sector workers were engaged in trade union duties during working hours, the second highest since data began to be recorded. In full-time equivalent terms, it’s the highest ever.

Unions push back strongly whenever this issue comes up. Unison says in defence of facility time that “the truth is that good employment relations increase productivity and efficiency.” Fair enough, although given how much unions should value these relations, the question that should be asked is why unions can’t fund it themselves?

But even if taxpayers are forced to accept paying for some facility time, the level that it currently stands at is clearly unreasonable. More than 1,000 employees across the public sector spend 100 per cent of their working hours on trade union duties. What the TPA has called for, which we believe is eminently reasonable, is for there to be a cap of 50 per cent of working hours for any individual employee to spend on trade union duties, and for there to be a cap of 0.05 per cent of an organisation’s wage bill to be spent on trade union facility time.

The previous government had taken this seriously, and had brought levels in the civil service down from 0.26 per cent of the total wage bill to 0.05 per cent, albeit this was limited to the civil service. In Labour’s new deal for working people there is a pledge to “ensure there is sufficient facilities time for all trade union reps.” Yet given the findings of our latest research it’s unsustainable to claim that sufficient time isn’t already available. 

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