- Conference
- 2013 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2013
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that there continues to be attacks on trade union facility time from the right wing media, government and such groups as the Trade Union Reform Group whose Chairman is Aiden Burley MP for Cannock Chase.
The Trade Union Reform Group has been addressed by Eric Pickles MP and notes amongst its supporters Dr Liam Fox MP the former defence secretary who spoke at an event in October 2012. The Prime Minister has also written to the group offering his support when it was formed.
We have to remain vigilant against such attacks; government cabinet minister Francis Maude MP has led attacks on trade union facility time within the civil service, the campaign against trade union facility time is still on the agenda for the so called “Taxpayers Alliance”.
There is also evidence that some employers are using the austerity programme to attack trade union facility time across all service sectors where UNISON organise including recent high profile attacks on facility time in the probation service. Are we next group to be targeted in the police sector.
UNISON and other trade unions have always campaigned vigorously to protect the right to, and highlight the benefits of, facility time for accredited trade union representatives. Employers within our service group have in the past always recognised the worth of having fully trained representatives and the fact that this training can usually only be provided by the use of facility time. Facility time enables not just training to be undertaken but also forms part of the structure of consultation, negotiation and bargaining with our employers. However due to budget cuts that have been imposed by this government facility time is now under threat.
Conference notes with extreme concern the work being undertaken by the Cabinet Office to attack trade union facility time across the civil service and associated agencies and non departmental public bodies. Conference believes that the Cabinet Office Framework on Facility Time is a thinly veiled assault on the ability of trade unions to organise effectively in the workplace and that it will result in widespread damage to employee relations across the public sector.
More and more of our activists are using their own time to carry out trade union work.
This government and other organisations are leading the attacks on facility time using the cost from the public purse as their main argument to restrict or remove facility time.
Conference believes that trade union facility time is rightly a matter between individual employers and their trade unions, rather than the political football the Government is seeking to make it. Most facility time arrangements represent good value for money, have grown up over a long period of time and provide both trade unions and employers with a tried and trusted framework for managing the ups and downs of the employment relationship. This view is shared by many employers, which recognise the value of positive working relationships with their trade unions. Whist the Government professes to be taking a hands-off approach to public service delivery, in relation to trade union facility time, it is interfering in local industrial relations in the most prescriptive way possible.
Conference therefore resolves to call on the Service Group Executive to campaign against attacks on trade union facility time as they affect the Police and Justice Service Group by:
1)Supporting branches and activists facing attacks on their current facility time arrangements.
2)Working with employers to achieve a positive outcome to the Cabinet Office Facility Time Framework.
3)Promoting the value of facility time to employers across the Service Group.
4)Monitoring developments across the Service Group
5)Working with other service groups within UNISON to highlight to our employers the benefits of facility time where it is proposed to reduce this
6)Working with employers within the service group to promote the benefits of facility time, particularly in the light of jobs cuts, work force change and redundancy
7)building on the TUC and STUC and fellow trade unions’ research which shows the positive value of facility time within policing;
8)continuing to monitor closely the activities of police forces, Probation Trusts and CAFCASS for any attempt to deny or undermine such provision;
9)defending the statutory right of union representatives to facility time including current facilities agreements;
10)working with Labour Link and General Political Fund to encourage all employers to commit to upholding and improving current facility time agreements;
11)working with the association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the Scottish Police Authority to uphold and improve the current facility time agreements.