Facility time reporting: guidance for public sector employers

Annex B: Glossary of terms

Term: Relevant public sector employer

Definition

Relevant public sector employers are set out in Section 7 of the regulations.

Term: TU representative

Definition

An official of an independent TU recognised by the employer.

Term: Relevant period

Definition

A period of 12 months beginning with 1 April, the first relevant period starts on 1 April 2017.

Term: Total pay bill

Definition

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

Term: Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employee number

Definition

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

Term: TU Duties

Definition

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:

(a) section 168, section 168A of the 1992 Act (TULR(C)A)

(b) section 10(6) of the Employment Relations Act 1999;

(c) regulations made under section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Term: TU Activities

Definition

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.

Term: Total paid facility time hours

Definition

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

Term: Hourly cost

Definition

For each employee:
(the gross amount spent on wages) + (pension contributions) + (national insurance contributions) divided by the number of hours during the relevant period.

Term: Total cost of facility time

Definition

For each employee who was a TU representative during the relevant period, facility time cost is calculated by:
(Hourly cost for each employee including on costs for pension and national insurance x number of paid facility time hours)

Total facility time cost is then calculated by adding together the amounts produced by the calculation of facility time cost for each employee.

Where an employer has a small number of employee representatives and it would be possible to identify an individual employee from the data, the figure for wages of that employee must be expressed as a notional hourly cost.