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8 Aug 2012
Councils across Scotland have spent almost £14 million over the last five years paying for staff to work for trade unions.
Local authorities are paying full-time wages to those workers who spend 100 per cent of their time on trade union work, with nearly 100 full time equivalents working with the unions last year.
In 2011 alone, almost £3 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on the so-called “time facility arrangements”, which are agreed between councils and unions to provide their representatives with time to carry out union duties.
The data, collected through Freedom of Information, shows that while some public sector employees were only working part-time on union business, scores more had full-time roles earning up to £27,000-a-year paid for by the public purse.
Fife Council was the largest spender, paying more than £2.5 million since 2007, supporting the equivalent of 18 full-time workers in that period.
Glasgow City Council employed the equivalent of more than 17 full-time trade union representatives over the past five years, at a cost of £2.2 million, while Aberdeen and Edinburgh both spent more than £1 million over that period.
Some councils either refused or were unable to respond to the FOI request, meaning the true cost is likely to be even higher.
Scottish Conservative local government spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell MSP said:
“In tough economic times many hard-working Scottish taxpayers will be wondering why their councils have spent so much money giving employees time off to work on trade union business while still paying them a full salary.
“Paying someone for the work they do is one thing, but paying them for work they don’t do is not something our public sector can afford to sustain.
“At a time when people are feeling the squeeze and cuts are being made, local authorities in turn should be looking at how this money could best be spent, including using it to better fund schools, local services, or other issues voters care about.
“Furthermore, the fact that some councils could not even estimate how much time was spent on trade union business, or how much the burden of having staff do this costs, is unacceptable.
“Councils in Scotland must review their time facility arrangements and question whether it is appropriate for taxpayers’ money to be prioritised in this way.”
Notes to Editors
See below the total spend on staff working on union time (salary and associated costs) from 2007/8 to 2011/12 years in Scotland, broken down by local authority:
Fife – £2.6 million
Glasgow – £2.2 million
Aberdeen – £1.4 million
Edinburgh – £1.1 million
Aberdeenshire – £740,000
Renfrewshire – £630,000
East Lothian – £500,000
Stirling – £470,000
Falkirk – £440,000
Inverclyde – £420,000
Western Isles – £418,000
North Lanarkshire – £373,000
Midlothian – £355,000
Moray – £335,000
Shetland – £318,000
Scottish Borders – £315,000
East Renfrewshire – £309,000
South Ayrshire – £266,000
North Ayrshire – £174,000
Clackmannanshire – £170,000
Orkney – £140,000
Highland – £135,000
Perth and Kinross – £116,000
East Ayrshire – £37,000
Angus – did not respond
Argyll and Bute – don’t hold information
Dumfries and Galloway – don’t hold information
Dundee – 0
East Dunbartonshire – did not respond
South Lanarkshire – don’t hold information
West Dunbartonshire – did not respond
Total – £13,960,000
See below the number of council workers working on a full-time basis for trade unions last year:
Aberdeen – 7.36
Aberdeenshire – 5
Angus – did not respond
Argyll and Bute – don’t hold information
Western Isles – 2
Edinburgh – 11.84
Clackmannanshire – 1.6
Dumfries and Galloway – don’t hold information
Dundee – 0
East Ayrshire – 0
East Dunbartonshire – did not respond
East Lothian – 2.53
East Renfrewshire – 2
Falkirk – 2.6
Fife – 17.83
Glasgow – 17.05
Highland – 1
Inverclyde – 2.5
Midlothian – 3.1
Moray – 0
North Ayrshire – 1
North Lanarkshire – 4
Orkney – 2
Perth and Kinross – 2.4
Renfrewshire – 3
Scottish Borders – 2.5
Shetland – 1.8
South Ayrshire – 1.4
South Lanarkshire – don’t hold information
Stirling – 2.6
West Dunbartonshire – did not respond
West Lothian – 1
Total – 98
