Taxpayers foot £9 million bill for trade union activities in London

 
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 26: A traveller passes a poster informing passengers of industrial action at Bond Street underground station on December 26, 2010 in London, England. The strike by Underground workers is over a dispute about pay and time off for working on Boxing day. The walk-out by drivers is expected to hit travellers heading to London's shops seeking sale bargains.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Peter Dominiczak31 October 2012

Nearly £9 million of tax money was spent last year paying for public sector workers in London to carry out trade union activities including organising strikes.

Figures reveal that London councils, NHS trusts, the Met Police and the fire service have scores of staff working on trade union activities at the taxpayers’ expense.

Representatives are allowed to take paid time off to carry out union duties, which can include negotiating terms and conditions of employment, helping members with disciplinary procedures as well as organising industrial action.

Today’s report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group shows that £8.7 million of staff time was spent paying union officials in London last year, up from £8.16 million in 2010.

The report claimed the proportion of staff working for unions across the public sector is rising. Nationally it found paid time off last year for union duties was equivalent to 3,041 full-time staff.

Across the country 1,200 state organisations spent £92 million of staff time on union work and another £21 million in direct payments to the unions.

The figures show that Transport for London last year paid 34 staff £981,000 for union activities.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is not fair that Londoners are seeing millions of pounds of their hard-earned cash being used to pay for trade union activists who organise strikes which disrupt the services they rely on and pay for handsomely.

“Hundreds of staff who should be spending their days running public services in the capital are working for the trade unions instead.

“Councils across the city are having to make difficult decisions about how to use scarce resources — yet civic leaders in many London Boroughs are routinely channelling hundreds of thousands of pounds of their residents’ money straight to trade unions.”

A TUC spokesman said union representatives help solve problems, saving employers time and money, and make workplaces safer.

“Independent and impartial studies show that if you don’t have the solution in the workplace the only other place is in the courts which costs employers massive amounts of money, especially when they have got things wrong,” he added.

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