1.1 North Ayrshire Council actively encourages Trade Union engagement and membership. The provision of Facility Time provides the space and time for Trade Union representatives to engage in workplace matters with their own members and managers to enable effective joint working between union representatives and employers

1.2 A number of studies have shown that workplaces that recognise and support Trade Unions tend to be safer and that trade unions help to promote skills and training in the workplace.

1.3 It is widely recognised that the benefits of Facility time are:

• Provision of an established structure for meaningful consultation and negotiation, saves money and reassures members that their views are valued in decision-making.
• Enables partnership working with trade unions improves workplace relationships and the reputation of an employer as ‘a good place to work’.
• Provides an opportunity for early intervention in relation to complaints, grievances, and disciplinary action, and prevents escalation into more serious problems and saves organisations (and taxpayers) money by reducing the impact on staff time and possible legal costs.
• Allows for informative communication during restructuring processes and improves understanding of decisions, minimises negative impacts and reduces the number of working days lost through industrial action.

1.4 The Fair Work Convention also highlights these points through its ‘effective voice’ principle. As they state:

1.5 On organisational change, they say:

1.6 It is the view of North Ayrshire Council that facility time data legally required by the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017, should be set in the context of the vast benefits that facility time bring to the workforce and to the employer, as set out above. This is supported by the Scottish Government, the STUC and our affiliated trade unions.

What was the total number of your employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period?

131 of our employees were relevant union officials during the relevant period. The full-time equivalent (FTE) employee number was 120.62.

How many of your employees who were relevant union officials employed during the relevant period spent 0%, 1% to 50%, 51% to 99% or 100% of their working hours on facility time?

Provide the figures to determine the percentage of your total pay bill spent on paying employees who were relevant union officials for facility time during the relevant period.

• Total cost of facility time - £240,849 per year
• Total pay bill - £317,355,027
• The percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time - 0.08%

To calculate the percentage you must do: total cost of facility time divided by total pay bill times 100.

As a percentage of total paid facility time hours, how many hours were spent by employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period on trade union activities?

The current time spent on trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours is 2.04%.

Time spent on trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (total hours spent on trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period divided by total paid facility time hours) times 100.

A period of 12 months beginning with 1 April.

Is the total amount of (the total gross amount spent on wages) + (total pension contributions) + (total national insurance contributions) during the relevant period.

The (total number of full time employees) + (the total fractions of full time employee hours worked by all employees who are not full time).

Duties where there is a statutory right to reasonable paid time off during normal working hours to undertake recognised duties and to complete training relevant to their TU role. This arises under:

• section 168, section 168A of the 1992 Act (TULR(C)A)
• section 10(6) of the Employment Relations Act 1999
• Regulations made under section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Means time taken off under section 170 (1) (b) of the 1992 Act. TU activities could include:

• meetings - where the purpose or principal purpose is to
• discuss internal union matters
• TU conferences
• internal administration of the union e.g. answering internal union correspondence, dealing with financial matters, responding to internal surveys.

There is no statutory entitlement to paid time off to undertake activities. However, TU representatives are entitled to be granted reasonable unpaid time off to participate in TU activities.

Total number of hours spent on facility time by all TU representatives during a relevant period for which they receive pay.

For each employee who was a TU representative during the relevant period, facility time cost is first calculated individually by:

• Hourly cost for each employee including on costs for pension and national insurance x number of paid facility time hours
• Then the total facility time cost is calculated by adding together the individual costs of facility time for all employees