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3rd
February 2012
It calculated that for every £1 spent on union facility
time in the public sector, between £3 and £9 was
returned in accrued benefits.
The report “Facility Time for Union Reps: Separating
fact from fiction”, says that in workplaces where union
reps negotiate on behalf of their colleagues, employers benefit
from significant cost savings.
These come in the form of more productive - and better trained
- workforces. An earlier government report cited in the study
showed that workplace-related injuries and illnesses were
lower in unionised workplaces, again resulting in savings
of millions of pounds for employers.
As fewer cases were taken to Employment Tribunal and as staff
tended to stay in post for longer when there were union reps
in the workplace, employers spent less on recruitment and
retention, with additional savings from lower dismissal rates.
The report also showed that a good deal of the work of union
reps takes place in their own time - 16 per cent of reps said
that less than a quarter of the time they spent on union work
was paid for by their employer.
Written by Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations
at the University of Hertfordshire, the report demonstrated
the overall value of union reps to the UK economy, not only
helping improve workplace conditions but also enabling private
and public sector employers to keep costs down, and so deliver
huge savings to the taxpayer.
The report was commissioned following the government’s
announcement in November 2011 that it would review the provision
of funding for trade union facility time in the public sector.
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