Lack of access to paid time off is biggest barrier to training

A survey of union learning representatives (ULRs) published in November 2006 by unionlearn – the learning and skills organisation of the Trades Union Congress – finds that ULRs believe that the lack of access to paid time off is the most significant barrier to training for UK workers.

Where trade unions are recognised by employers, the Employment Act 2002 (UK0210103F) provides a statutory right to paid time off work for union learning representatives (ULRs) (UK0402103F) to carry out a range of duties. These include:

• analysing members’ learning or training needs;

• advising members about learning or training matters;

• arranging learning or training opportunities;

• consulting the employer about these issues.

According to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), since ULRs achieved this legal recognition, their numbers have doubled from around 6,500 representatives in 2003 to over 13,000 representatives in 2005.

On 17 November 2006, unionlearn – the TUC’s learning and skills organisation – published a report entitled Making a real difference – Union learning reps: a survey (425Kb PDF). The report summarises the findings of a survey of ULRs conducted in late 2005, which received over 800 responses.

Main survey findings

Barriers to training

A key finding of the survey is that 46.2% of respondent ULRs consider the lack of access to paid time off to be the greatest barrier to workers undertaking training, while a further 15.6% cited a lack of employer support and 11.5% noted long working hours as barriers to training. With regard to their own role, 42.9% of ULRs revealed that the lack of time off (both time off for duties and ‘facilities time’) was the main obstacle to fully carrying out their function, while another 16.9% of respondents referred to long working hours in their jobs. In addition, 16.1% of ULRs reported not receiving adequate support from employers.

New union activists

Another finding highlighted by unionlearn is that ULRs are ‘a new kind of union activist’. Over a third of respondents (35.5%) had never held a trade union position before, compared with 28% of respondents in a previous survey in 2003 (UK0402103F) and 9% of respondents in 2000. These new activists are more likely to be women (53.4% compared with 41.4% overall) and younger (19.4% under the age of 36 years compared with 11.7% overall) than ULRs generally.

Impact of ULRs

As to their impact at the workplace, 83.3% of respondents reported that they ‘encouraged colleagues to continue learning’, 60.5% stated that they ‘encouraged colleagues with little or no experience [of learning] to access [courses]’ and 37.8% revealed that they ‘helped colleagues improve their Skills for Life [a government literacy and numeracy initiative]’. On trade union issues, 56.2% of respondents reported providing membership information to potential members, 26.7% stated that they recruited new members and 39.9% believe their work has improved their union’s image among members and potential members. Most of these figures are higher than those found in the 2003 and 2000 surveys.

However, unionlearn reports a decline in three areas:

• 41.1% of respondents report an ‘improved culture of learning at work’, down from 49.9% in 2003;

• 39.3% of respondents report an ‘improved union/management dialogue on learning’, down from 46.2% in 2003;

• 29.3% of respondents report that they had ‘helped colleagues get funding’, down from 33.9% in 2003.

According to unionlearn, ‘it may not be ULRs who are to blame: these are areas which are influenced by the overall industrial relations climate at the workplace and changes to government funding.’

Learning agreements

Some 60.6% of ULRs reported having a ‘learning agreement’ with management in place, up from 51.3% in 2003. The vast majority of learning agreements provide paid time off for ULRs to conduct their duties (92.7%) and attend training courses (90.8%), which is not surprising as these are statutory rights. Just under half (46.5%) of ULRs indicated that the learning agreement provides for paid time off for members to access their ULR, and 42.2% revealed that the agreement covers paid time off for members to attend training. Other areas covered are: equal opportunities (52.9%); the establishment of workplace learning centres (50.2%); the establishment of workplace learning committees (43.7%); unpaid time off for members to attend training (26%); and unpaid time off for members to access ULRs (20.8%).

Call for paid time off

The TUC and unionlearn believe that the research supports two key demands that unions have been urging the ‘Leitch Review’ of the UK’s long-term skills needs to adopt (UK0612049I). According to the Director of unionlearn, Liz Smith:

We need new legal rights to paid time off to train. Such rights are especially important for those without a qualification at the standard expected of school leavers. And unions should have the right to request that, in workplaces with union learning reps, employers should enter into a learning agreement with unions and establish a workplace learning committee to support the employers’ workforce development strategies.

The TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, added that: ‘the government should extend paid time off arrangements to more workers, to help ensure we get organised to acquire the skills we need to compete in the 21st century global economy.’

In early January 2007, the government published a consultation document entitled Workplace representatives: a review of their facilities and facility time (405Kb PDF), which presents the first findings of a review of the facilities and facility time provided to workplace representatives, including ULRs, launched in June 2006. The review should be completed by the summer of 2007.

Mark Carley, SPIRE Associates/IRRU, University of Warwick