Trade union facility time

The Trade Union Act 2016 introduced a requirement for public sector employers (including HEI’s in England and Scotland) to publish certain information on trade union facility time. The requirements apply to public sector employers with 50 or more employees (FTE) and at least one relevant trade union official.

This is a new provision designed to promote transparency and public scrutiny of facility time, and to encourage public sector employers to moderate the amount of money spent on trade union facility time in the light of that scrutiny. Employers must publish the required information relating to the 12-month “relevant period”, which is the 12 months from 1 April to 31 March every year, with the first period being from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

1. Relevant Union Officials (i.e. trade union official, union learning representative and health and safety representative)

The total number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period:

Number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant periodFull-time equivalent
 16  15.5

2. Percentage of time spent on facility time

The number of employees who were relevant union officials employed during the relevant
period spent a) 0%, b) 1%-50%, c) 51%-99% or d) 100% of their working hours on facility time:

Percentage of timeNumber of Employees
 0%  0
 1-50%  15
 51-99%  1
 100%  0

3. Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time

The percentage of the total pay bill spent on paying employees who were relevant union officials for facility time during the relevant period:

The total cost of facility time £154,159.61
The total pay bill £58,276,010
 The percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time, calculated as: (total cost of facility time ÷ total pay bill) x 100  0.26%

4. Paid trade union activities

As a percentage of total paid facility time hours, how many hours were spent by employees who
were relevant union officials during the relevant period on paid trade union activities:

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (total hours spent on paid trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period ÷ total paid facility time hours) x 100 5.88%

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