Attacks on trade union facilities time are self defeating

Published: 01 November 2012

The Royal College of Nursing has said that restricting facilities time would harm partnership working between employers and their staff and unions.

By law, workplace representatives – such as stewards, and learning and safety representatives – are entitled to time off from their normal roles for their trade union duties, known as facilities time. This could be for discussions with the workforce about workplace changes, member representation, service reorganisation and employment tribunals.

Local representatives help to sort out problems before they become serious. They tackle grievances or disputes at a local level, saving time and money by preventing the need for cases to go to a higher level of management or Employment Tribunal. Yet due to workplace pressures, duties are often carried out in the representatives’ own time - curbing facilities time will only damage goodwill.

The Cabinet Office has outlined plans to curb facilities time in the civil service and these restrictions may well be extended to the NHS. These developments have been supported the Tax Payers’ Alliance which has challenged how union representation in the public sector is funded.

Josie Irwin, RCN Head of Employment Relations, said that facilities time saves employers money as a result of more productive, trained workforces, safer workplaces and fewer cases taken to employment tribunal.

She said: “Difficulties often arise in backfilling representatives’ trade union time, particularly in clinical and specialist settings. In reality, this means that in a large number of cases representatives carry out their trade union work in addition to their contracted hours.

“Lots of trade union representatives work is carried out by ‘goodwill’, picking a fight may lose this and present real problems for organisations and employers.”