Scottish Government's staff carrying out Trade Union duties: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01806
Date received: 2 August 2017
Date responded: 23 August 2017

Information requested

How many staff in your organisation are employed full time on Trade Union Facilities Time and also those employed on a part time basis to carry out Trade Union Facilities.

Response

The Scottish Government does not employ staff specifically to carry out trade union duties either on a full time or part time basis. However, we do provide facility time to staff members who have been designated as an accredited representative of one of our recognised trade unions. The facility time that we provide allows these staff time off from their employed role in order to fulfil their trade union duties which includes representing the views of staff members in meetings with management on a wide range of employment and organisational matters.

Facility time is an essential element to the success of our commitment to work in partnership with our trade unions which in turn ensures that our staff are involved and have a voice in the decisions that we make as an organisation which affect their day-to-day working lives.

Currently we have 7 staff members who are provided with facility time that is equivalent to full-time working hours and 3 staff members who are provided with facility time that is less than full-time working hours. There are also arrangements for ad-hoc facility time to be provided to staff members, when required, including where this is required to meet statutory employment law requirements. For example, to support / represent another staff member at a disciplinary meeting or to attend a union meeting or a meeting with management.

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