Councils Pay Staff £15m for Union Time

Employees are automatically at a disadvantage when being represented by a trade union reps who use workplace representatives. It becomes even more unfair and not impartial when those reps are receiving vast amounts of money from the employer.

The Workers of England only use external, and therefore completely independent, representatives. Council Tax Payers’ money should be used for public services, not for subsidising trade union reps who ought to be funded by the union through its membership fees.

Key Findings: Facility Time Expenditure

Councils across England are spending more than £14.5 million per year on providing facility time for trade union representatives, according to recent research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. On average, each local authority allocates 0.10% of its total wage bill to subsidise union activities, with at least 371 staff members working for unions at least 50% of the time.

Alarmingly, a third of local authorities have failed to publish data on facility time, indicating that the real cost could be substantially higher.

Policy Implications

James Price, policy analyst for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, emphasises:

“Our research shows that local authorities continue to provide millions of pounds’ worth of facility time to unions. Local authorities do not make their data on trade union payments easily available, and the most recently available figures vary by year. This means our published totals significantly understate the true costs. For instance, our “total amount spent” figure aggregates the most recent data we could find going back to 2012/13, so the real costs are likely much higher.”

Conclusion

It is essential that public funds are directed towards core services rather than subsidising trade union activities. Transparency in reporting and a shift towards union-funded representation would ensure fairness and accountability for every pound of taxpayers’ money spent.