Government to stop staff working as full-time union officials

4 Oct 11
Local government staff and civil servants will be barred from working full time for trade unions while taking a salary for their job, the government has announced.

By Richard Johnstone in Manchester | 4 October 2011

Local government staff and civil servants will be barred from working full-time for trade unions while taking a salary for their job, the government has announced.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles told the Conservative party conference yesterday that it cost taxpayers £250m a year to fund council staff in full-time union positions. He said this represented ‘money taken away from frontline services… We’re going to call time on this last closed shop’.

Civil servants could also barred from taking such positions. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told delegates that he will consult on how to end central government staff being able to work for unions full time, in what he called a 'taxpayer subsidy' of union work.

Maude also announced that the Cabinet Office would consult on reducing the time spent by civil servants on union activities to ‘reasonable levels’.

He said that such ‘facility time’ provisions had ‘got out of hand’ with 150 civil servants on full-time union work, costing the civil service £30m a year,

‘We can’t go on like this,’ he said.

The move was labelled ‘plain daft’ by Unison, the largest public sector union. It pointed to research commissioned in 2007 by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the predecessor of today’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. This showed that effective union representation saved the public purse between £170m and £400m a year by improving retention and aiding in dispute resolution, and as much as £3.6bn a year through productivity gains.

General secretary Dave Prentis said workers had a right to be represented. ‘Public services are facing savage cutbacks and workers have a right to have their voices heard – and rightly expect their union reps to be there to help them when they need them most.

'Trade union facility time makes good business sense, and any attempts to cut it will end up costing the taxpayer money.’

Maude also told unions that they should 'be in no doubt' that the government will reform public sector pensions.

The Trades Union Congress plans a day of action on November 30 over the proposed changes, which include contribution increases and a later retirement age.

Maude told delegates: 'We're discussing these reforms with the trade unions, and we hope we can reach agreement.

'But let there be no doubt. These reforms are essential and we are utterly determined to see them through, because it's the right thing for Britain's long-term future.'

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