Trade Union Act 2016 – threat to trade union facility time


With proactive inspections from the HSE and local authorities continuing to be cut back (see Chapter 2: Enforcement), the role of trade union safety representatives is more important than ever. However, the Trade Union Act 2016 (TUA 16) gave ministers the power to make new regulations requiring any public sector employer (or any private or voluntary sector employer that is mainly publicly funded) with at least one union rep to record and publish all the time taken, and any facilities provided.


The government introduced the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 without consultation and they are in force from 1 April 2017.
They require public authorities with 49 or more full-time equivalent staff for the 12-month period monitored to provide information on:



• the number of employees who were union officials in that period;



• the number of those who spent set proportions of their working hours on facility time (0%, 1-50%, 51-99% and 100%);



• the percentage of the organisation’s pay bill spent on facility time; and 



• the proportion of paid facility time that was spent on trade union “activities” (matters which attract time off but not, by law, paid time off).



The TUC has branded the measure “pointless” and “bureaucratic” and clearly aimed at reducing the amount of time union reps can spend representing members on health and safety and other issues.


The Act also contains “reserve powers” allowing a minister to make regulations capping the total amount of paid facility time (again in the public sector, or where the organisation’s activities are mainly publicly funded), including facility time for safety reps carrying out their statutory functions under the SRSCR. As a result of union campaigning, this power cannot be exercised until at least three years’ worth of data on facility time have been collected and analysed, and only after consultation, followed by 12 months’ notice to the employer.



TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson called this measure “really vindictive” and “underhand”. “At no time have the government given any justification for this proposal… It will not save money or remove bureaucracy, nor will it improve safety. It is simply an ideologically led knee-jerk reaction,” he said.



An analysis of facility time published by the TUC in February 2016 shows that for every £1 spent on paid time off for public sector union reps to represent their members, taxpayers get at least £2.31 back in savings. The report, The benefits of paid time off for trade union representatives, is based on analysis of official figures by the University of Bradford.


The TUC says that unions must remain alert and ready to run effective campaigns opposing cuts to their facility time and individual unions have increased their efforts to maintain or develop the best possible facility time agreements. A useful resource is the Unite Trade Union Facilities Template, developed by its National Organising and Leverage Department , while UNISON has produced updated guidance for its branches, available on its website.


LRD will shortly publish an updated guide to facility time, to help support reps in their use of the time available at their workplace.