Legal Briefing on Facility Time

This briefing first summarises the legal entitlements to paid time off for trade union duties and time off for trade union activities.

Second, it deals with time off for health and safety duties.

Third, it sets out the legal protections from detriment and dismissal.

The fourth section deals with opportunities for legal challenge, and possible strategies of resistance. Extracts from the relevant statutory materials are contained in the Appendix including SS 168 and 178 TULRA 1992, Reg 4 of the 1977 Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations 1977 (SRSCR), the 2010 ACAS Code of Practice on Trade Union Duties and Activities (the ACAS TU Code), the HSE Code of Practice on time off for the training of safety representatives (the HSE training Code), the HSE Code of Practice on Safety representatives and Safety Committees (the HSE reps Code), and the ACAS Code on Discipline and Grievance (the ACAS D&G Code). Rights for pensions, union learning and other types of representatives are not covered specifically in this briefing although AEP may wish to bear them in mind in considering the issues in this briefing. In line with other policies pursued by the coalition government, facility time for trade unions is under attack. In the civil service for example, from 2012/13, facility time has been cut to no more than 0.1% of the pay bill. There are proposals to reduce this still further to 0.04%. No more than 50% of time can be spent on trade union duties, unless ministerial dispensation has been granted. Virtually none has. Similar attacks are being made in the NHS and local government