Trade Union Facilities Time

Each year our schools pay into pooled trade union arrangements with each of our local authorities, and we currently employ a number of those trade union representatives in our schools who undertake paid trade union duties. We also have several school-based representatives who are staff working in our schools. They undertake a range of full-time and part-time roles, whilst also undertaking trade union activities, working closely with their local and regional representatives.

Each year, we are required to submit a trade union facility time report to the government, and for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, our submission details the following:

We have between 50 to 1,500 employees in our trust (we currently employ 1116 staff), and of those staff, seven of our employees are in-school trade union representatives and four are paid trade union representatives. The full-time equivalent is 2.6.

The percentage of working hours spent on facility time for the period the submission relates is:
6 in-school representatives have not undertaken trade union activities during working hours.
2 representatives spent between 1-50%, including one paid trade union representative.
2 paid trade union representatives spent between 51-99%.
1 paid representative spent 100% on trade union duties.

Previously the submission was more restrictive and did not allow the trust to reflect additional trade union facility time information in relation to local authority pooled arrangements. The submission for 2021/22 is inclusive of the total cost of staff related facility time (£125,578.81) and the total cost of pooled arrangements (£19,303.68), total £144,882.49.

Our total pay bill for the period was £29,600,668. The percentage of pay spent on paid facility time remains at 0.49%. The total hours the paid trade union representatives spent on facility time is 3310, no hours were spent on paid trade union representatives activities. The percentage of total paid facility time hours spent on paid trade union representatives activities is 0%. The school-based representatives spent 21.33 hours on paid trade union activities during working hours, total cost £217.78 (included in total cost of staff related facility time).

The cost of paid facility time to the organisation is £125,579. We are able to claim back £114,900 from East Riding and Hull local authorities, leaving a shortfall of £10,679. The total cost of local authority pooled arrangements is £19,304. Total trade union cost to the organisation £29,983.