The value of unions to the UK economy
24/1/2012
The presence of unions in workplaces could be saving employers in the private and public sectors as much £701m a year or £2m a day, according to a report published today by the TUC, which URTU is an affiliated member.
The report 'Facility Time for Union Reps: Separating fact from fiction', says that in workplaces where there are union reps negotiating with employers on behalf of their colleagues, there are significant cost savings to be had. These come in the form of more productive, and better trained, workforces, safer workplaces, fewer cases taken to employment tribunal - so as staff tend to stay in post for longer, less is spent on recruitment and retention.
Written by Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Hertfordshire, the report demonstrates the value of union reps to the UK economy, not only helping improve workplace conditions but also enabling private and public sector employers to keep costs down, and so deliver huge savings to the taxpayer.
The report notes that the government is coming under pressure from right-wing backbench MPs and associated groups who want ministers to limit the amount of time reps can spend improving workplace conditions and negotiating with employers.
The TUC report says that a good deal of the work of union reps takes place in their own time - 16 per cent of union reps said that less than a quarter of the time they spent on union work was paid for by their employer. And it calculates that for every £1 spent on union facility time in the public sector, between £3 and £9 is returned in accrued benefits.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "The highly exaggerated and wholly inaccurate figures being bandied around by groups and individuals on the right as to the cost of unions in the public sector are supposedly borne out of a desire to save money. In reality they are nothing more than a thinly-veiled attack on unions and their ability to represent workers across the public sector.
"Yet our research shows that there are huge benefits to employers - in both the public and private sectors - to be had as a result of the funding of facility time for union reps. Successive governments have recognised the moral, legal and economic case for supporting workplace reps - ministers would be wise to do likewise and avoid what appear to be ideologically-driven announcements designed to appease right wing backbenchers."
