Government evaluates facilities and time off of workplace representatives

In January 2007, the government published a consultation document as part of a major review of the time off, training and facilities provided to the UK’s 350,000 union and non-union workplace representatives.

In March 2006, the Labour Party government announced its plans to launch a review of the time off, training and facilities available to workplace representatives (UK0605019I). In June 2006, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) launched the review and in January 2007 published its Consultation document - Workplace representatives: A review of their facilities and facility (405 Kb PDF) presenting the initial findings. The review addresses:

• ‘whether new methods of working at the modern workplace seriously affect the ability of workplace representatives to function well’;

• ‘whether the effectiveness and efficiency of workplace representatives can be enhanced in order to optimise the net benefits they bring to employees, employers and society more generally’.

Contents of review

The review is based on: informal consultations with social partner organisations; focus groups of trade union representatives; and the main sources of information in this area, especially the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (UK0607019I). It examines both trade union representatives - shop stewards, union health and safety representatives, union learning representatives (UK0402103F) and union members who act as representatives on joint consultative committees (JCCs) - and non-union representatives, who generally perform consultative functions, sometimes as members of JCCs or alternatively in ‘settings without formal consultative machinery’.

Interested parties were given until 29 March 2007 to submit responses to the consultation document. The government will then respond to the consultation and conclude the review by the summer of 2007.

Number of workplace representatives

According to the consultation document, there are over 350,000 workplace representatives, evenly split between trade union and non-union representatives. Union representatives are ‘more active and perform a wider range of functions’. Although the number is quite high, it may be declining relative to the increasing size of the workforce. However, an estimated 47% of employees have an on-site representative present at their workplace. Representation is much more marked in the public sector.

Workplace representatives tend to be ‘quite old’; moreover, women are underrepresented in this field, although an increasing proportion of the total are women. The review finds evidence to suggest that union representation is ‘thinning out’: union representatives are aged 46 years on average and trade unions are reportedly finding it difficult to recruit new and younger members as representatives.

Time on union duties and time off

Senior trade union representatives at workplaces with union recognition spend a weekly average of 12.5 hours on their union duties, according to the consultation document. Most of this time is taken during working hours, although a significant amount of the representatives’ own time is spent on such duties, probably at home. A large minority of trade union representatives spend little time on their duties, although non-union representatives spend much less time on such tasks.

The amount of time off taken by representatives has not declined, and may have even increased since 1998. However, trade unions argue that representatives are under increasing pressure and failing to take sufficient time off at work to perform their functions effectively. Problems cited include an absence of cover, a negative attitude among middle management and increasing pressures on representatives to service their members off-site or on complex issues. These problems, along with privacy concerns, are allegedly resulting in more representatives using their own time for union business.

Training

The review states that three quarters of union representatives have received training, compared with about one fifth of non-union representatives. While union representatives report that they are usually paid during training, over one in seven of them say that they never receive payment. Time off for training appears to be more difficult for representatives to obtain than time off for union duties, because it typically involves lengthy absences from the workplace.

Over 40,000 participants attended courses organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 2005. These include core training for shop stewards and short courses on specific topics, which are becoming increasingly significant.

The state spends about GBP 10 million (€14.9 million as at 15 February 2007) each year supporting union training. The review suggests that these courses are ‘well taught in educational terms’, but that there is much less evidence about ‘the impact of such training back at the student’s workplace’.

The document states that the government values the training that representatives receive and wants to promote a public debate about the future direction of union training, including the expanded use of online methods.

Facilities

Most representatives have access to basic office facilities, enabling them to communicate with their constituencies. A major change since 1998 is the increasing proportion of representatives who have access to a computer at work. However, there is a concern that certain categories of representative may be missing out on this development because of their occupation. This may create a ‘two-tier system of representation’, with some representatives enjoying the significant advantages of using a computer to communicate and access information, while a minority of representatives continue to work without such equipment. Some representatives also report that they deliberately choose not to use workplace computers because of security and privacy concerns; thus, a ‘significant minority’ of representatives prefer to use their own computers, thereby increasing the tendency to use their own time for union duties.

Information sources

According to the consultation report, the wide range of materials on the rights of workplace representatives, produced by various government departments and agencies, ‘could be more useful and accessible’ if some guidance were consolidated or a single portal created where representatives could access all of the information. The review suggests that it might also be advantageous to produce a dedicated guide to the law on all types of workplace representative.

Three Codes of Practice that cover the work of trade union representatives, which were produced by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), have special legal status. These codes have not been significantly revised since they were first published in the mid 1970s, and the government considers that the Acas Code on time off for trade union duties and activities (198 Kb PDF) needs to be updated to reflect changing patterns of work and ‘modern workplace behaviours’.

Legal entitlements

At least 15 different types of workplace representatives have statutory rights under UK law. Some workplace representatives - including most non-union representatives and representatives of unrecognised unions - have no statutory rights or very limited entitlements. Major differences are also apparent in entitlements among those representatives who do have statutory rights: for example, some representatives have no entitlement to facilities while others do, and some have rights to time off for training while others do not.

The review suggests that the wording used in the relevant legislation could be ‘helpfully consolidated or simplified’, and more consistent wording used across these closely related entitlements.

Entitlements to time off are often subject to a ‘reasonableness test’ or its equivalent, which has led some parties - both employers and trade unions - to suggest that greater certainty should be introduced.

The government asks respondents to consider these and other suggestions to change the legal framework, although ‘on the evidence so far available, it does not see a compelling case for change’.

Benefits and costs

The consultation document presents a detailed assessment of the benefits and costs under the existing regulatory framework. The DTI estimates that workplace representatives bring identifiable benefits worth between GBP 476 million (€709) and GBP 1,133 million (€1,688 million) annually, in addition to which there may be ‘significant other gains from increased productivity’. The costs to employers of providing paid time off and facilities are estimated at between GBP 407 million (€606 million) and GBP 430.4 million (€641 million) annually. Furthermore, representatives spend large amounts of their own time - estimated to be worth GBP 115 million (€171 million) annually - on their duties.

TUC response

The TUC has welcomed the review. The organisation’s General Secretary, Brendan Barber, commented:

[A] minority of employers offer the union reps in their workplace no support at all, and in some cases attempt to victimise and harass any employees who volunteer for union work. This review is going to be welcomed by all those union reps unfortunate enough to have unsupportive employers, and who currently end up doing much of their union work in their own time. It will hopefully . . . create a less threatening environment in these workplaces, encouraging more people to put themselves forward as union reps and stewards.

On 30 January 2007, the TUC published a report on union representatives, entitled Making the difference: Union representatives and company performance; the latter report is based on a survey of representatives and human resources (HR) professionals, conducted with the specialist publication Personnel Today. According to the report:

• 92% of respondent representatives believe that their career prospects have been hampered by their personal involvement with unions, although only 36% of the HR professionals believe that union representatives’ careers are damaged by taking on union duties;

• 57% of the HR professionals agree that unions are an essential part of modern employee relations and 52% that unions are a ‘force for good’;

• on balance, a small majority of the HR professionals believe their organisations’ employees would get a worse deal without their union and its representatives;

• 49% of the union representatives believe that their employer values their representative role, but only 16% of them consider that the government values this role.

According to the TUC’s national organiser, Paul Nowak:

This survey shows that, while many reps feel their role is valued and understood by management, few think that the government recognises the positive contribution they make in the workplace. The government can use its ongoing facilities review to show that it understands and values the role of the union rep.

Mark Carley, SPIRE Associates/IRRU, University of Warwick