Labour is to hand public sector union reps more time off their day jobs to fight for workers – and will keep the cost to the taxpayer a secret.
The Employment Rights Bill, which gained Royal Assent last week, will essentially allow reps to decide how to use ‘facility time’, paid leave from their workplace they can use to carry out union work.
Little noticed government guidance on the law, championed by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, also sets out how it introduces the right to time off ‘for the purpose of promoting the value of equality in the workplace’.
While the cost to taxpayers of facility time has previously been published, the new law removes this requirement, along with the ability to cap the time taken.
Cabinet Office data showed that in the 2024/25 financial year, public sector facility time cost the taxpayer £106.4million.
The biggest spender was the NHS, which is currently in the midst of a major strike of resident doctors co-ordinated by the BMA.
Officials will also be able to decide how much take off, with their own definition of what is ‘reasonable’ being the default and employers having to take it to a tribunal if they disagree.
The biggest spender on facility time was the NHS, which is currently in the midst of a major strike of resident doctors co-ordinated by the BMA.
The document notes: ‘Despite the fact that most union representatives do receive paid time off, this is often insufficient to allow them to carry out all of their trade union duties and many union representatives use significant amounts of their own time to do so.
‘The Government wants to ensure that union workplace representatives are able to take sufficient paid facility time with sufficient access to facilities to enable them to fulfil their union representative duties.
‘This will lead to improved worker representation and industrial relations by giving trade unions and workplace representatives the freedom to organise, represent and negotiate on behalf of their workers and increased cooperation between employers and unionised workers, leading to beneficial outcomes for the economy.’
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told the Times: ‘It will add insult to injury for British taxpayers to see such vast amounts of their money be siphoned off to pay for paid time off for trade union stooges.
‘Radical unions are still choosing to periodically shut down public services in a display of destructive behaviour which would make an arsonist blush.
‘Ministers should be drastically cutting spending on facility time, not allowing it to increase as they have done.’
It came after the think-tank behind Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign privately criticised the workers’ rights agenda.
Labour Together sent MPs a provocative paper describing the Employment Rights Act as a ‘safety blanket’ that ‘saps dynamism’ from the economy.
It said that the Government should ditch 80 per cent of the new regulations to be imposed on firms and instead embrace ‘easy firing’ while also providing unemployment insurance for those laid off.
The document accused ministers of ‘going backwards on labour market regulation’ despite making progress on planning reform.
It also opened with the words ‘Tony Blair was right’, in what will be seen as a further rebuke to those on the left of the party such as Ms Rayner.
According to The Times, the paper was circulated among Labour MPs this week just as the Employment Rights Bill cleared its final parliamentary hurdles after a stand-off in the Lords forced ministers to water down some of its ‘day one’ protections for workers.
It comes after Labour Together, which masterminded Sir Keir’s bid to take over the party in 2020, added to the speculation about the Prime Minister’s future by surveying members on their preferred candidates in a future leadership election.
On Friday night sources insisted the think-tank had not been calling on the Employment Rights Bill to be scrapped but was merely considering possibilities for the future of the economy.
