Trade union time costs revealed - but not at SBC!

WORLD EXCLUSIVE by EWAN LAMB

Local councils and all other public authorities have, for the first time, published figures showing the cost of so-called Trade Union Facility Time, and it is clear the national bill will run into many millions of pounds.

But although Scottish local authorities and other bodies operating in the public sector posted monetary amounts on their respective websites by the July 31 deadline, Scottish Borders Council's document does not include a figure...only the fact that the 32 "relevant union officials" cost the equivalent of 0.107% of the total wage bill in 2017/18.

New regulations were introduced by the UK Government in 2017 making publication of the trade union information mandatory, including cash sums which the public could identify.

The regulations are designed “to promote transparency and allow for public scrutiny of facility time. They create scope for sensible savings by improving public accountability which will ensure taxpayers’ money is only spent on justifiable and accountable trade union work that represents value for money”.

Facility Time is the provision of paid or unpaid time off from an employee’s normal role to undertake trade union duties and activities as a trade union representative. The first set of figures for 2017/18 had to be made available publicly by July 31st this year.

Not Just Sheep & Rugby randomly accessed the newly published statistics for 16 of Scotland's 32 councils as well as a number of other organisations in a bid to establish what facility time was costing.

The figures range from the modest to the gargantuan although we offer no opinion on their merit or otherwise.

The largest sum we identified was for NHS Lothian where 167 'relevant union officials' including 27 who devoted 100% of their time to union duties cost £1,084,421 (0.12% of the health board's wage bill).

Other notable totals were for Renfrewshire Council where £619,180 was spent on the activities of 56 officials; at South Lanarkshire Council with 236 officials cost £478,291, the Scottish Government (£476,589 for 115 designation trade union officers), Police Scotland where £462,760 was the bill for 47 officials, and Scottish Fire & Rescue, £344,051 for 154 individuals.

The total amount of money required to pay for the trade union facility time at the 22 organisations we looked at was in excess of £5.5 million.

Here is a list of the individual returns from those 22 bodies in no particular order:

:LOCAL AUTHORITIES – Fife – 69 relevant union officials (£269,401); Scottish Borders 32 (no figure given, but costs equivalent to 0.107% of total wage bill); Dumfries & Galloway 25 (£86,214); East Lothian 10 (£36,037; West Dunbartonshire 75 £106,841; Aberdeen City 48 £316,260 plus 77 education TU officials (£216,910); Dundee City 32 (£116,089; Falkirk 43 (£109,738); Stirling 19 (£56,869); South Lanarkshire 236 (£478,291); Moray 19 (127,946); Perth & Kinross 35 (£79,395); North Ayrshire 173 (£137,238); West Lothian 38 (£171,740); Renfrewshire 56 (£619,180); Angus 43 (£125,241).

OTHERS – Scottish Government 115 (£476,589); Registers of Scotland 10 (£148,190); NHS Lothian 167 (£1,084,421); NHS Education for Scotland 8 (£14,516); Police Scotland 47 (£462,760) including 12 full-time union officials; Scottish Fire & Rescue 154 (£344,051) five full-timers.

Not Just Sheep & Rugby does not venture into Englandshire very often. But we thought it would be interesting to compare the cost of trade union activities in some of the organisations south of the Tweed.

There was a shock of astonishing proportions almost right away when we discovered Transport for London has 731 union officials, and the spend in 2017/18 came to an eye-watering £7,487,069. That figure is greater than the 22 Scottish totals combined.

Manchester City Council reported expenditure of £233,980 on 84 trade union officers. Our nearest neighbours, Northumberland County Council chalked up a reasonably modest £90,558 for 36 officials.

Meanwhile Northamptonshire County Council, the Tory controlled local authority currently on the brink of bankruptcy, spent £108,361 on 23 individuals. That is probably barely enough to save them from the debtors' prison!

Birmingham City Council, the second largest local authority in the country has trimmed spending on facility time in recent years. It is one of the few councils which has been publishing statistics for several years. In 2013/14 the city racked up £1,124,924 on 96 officers. But by 2017/18 the figure had fallen to £859,710 for 57 members of staff receiving time off for union duties.

Finally, Leicester City Council's figures last year were £430,536 for 95 officials.

The publication of the data may well spark "outrage" in some sections of the press.and media.