Labour gives railway trade union activists a ‘blank cheque’

Labour has been accused of giving rail union activists a “blank cheque” to campaign during work hours. Groups including the RMT, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and the Aslef train drivers’ association will be allowed to carry out trade union work while being paid as if they were in their day jobs. Keir Mather, a junior minister, said that the Department for Transport (DfT)’s passenger train agency, DfT Operator, had signed a “voluntary recognition agreement” with the three main rail unions.

That agreement, the minister said, had no limits on taxpayer funding of trade union activism during normal working hours. The funding will be supplied via Great British Railways, the planned state body unifying the rail network. Richard Holden MP, the shadow transport secretary, said: “It’s crystal clear that Andy Burnham’s Labour Government is repeating Keir Starmer’s mistakes and giving a blank cheque to their trades union paymasters on the trains – this time with so called ‘facility time’ which, in reality, means political campaigning at the expense of passengers and taxpayers.

“Rather than raising taxes and fares to pay for union activity, the Government should be concentrating on making railways cheaper , safer and more reliable for passengers and taxpayers,” the Conservative MP added. “Sadly under Labour, serving the unions rather than the public will always be their top priority.” Union sources say that facility time consists of up to 50 per cent of a worker’s normal contracted hours which can be spent performing activities such as identifying health and safety problems or dealing with workplace disciplinary problems.

This is claimed to save employers money by avoiding the need to hire more HR staff. Previously, under the Civil Service’s wider Facility Time Framework document, government departments were not allowed to spend more than 0.1 per cent of their annual salary bill on trade union activists’ facility time. This would have limited DfT and its agencies, such as DfT Operator or the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, to a maximum of about £58,000 per year being spent on facility time.

But Mr Mather confirmed that all limits have been lifted. In a parliamentary response to a question posed by Mr Holden, he said: “The [trade union] agreement does not prescribe a fixed facility time entitlement, budget or payroll percentage. “Instead, reasonable paid time off for accredited representatives will be managed in line with legislation, Acas guidance and operational requirements. “As facility time will vary according to operational need and levels of trade union activity , it is not currently possible to provide a reliable estimate of its annual cost or proportion of payroll,” he added, saying that such paid time off “will be managed proportionately, balancing statutory obligations, operational delivery and value for money considerations”.

Facility time includes activities such as attending union conferences during working hours, as well as “union facing” projects such as branch meetings. Critics have said Labour’s watering down of rules ensuring that public sector union members are not paid for non-work activities during work time effectively channels cash into the unions’ pockets. Trade unions fund the Labour Party and individual Labour MPs to the tune of millions of pounds per year.

Key taxpayer protections against union misuse of facility time were torn up by Sir Keir Starmer’s government, including laws ensuring departments revealed how much facility time was granted to union activists. Labour also weakened transparency laws around trade union financing, making it harder for the public to understand and scrutinise how much money unions are pouring into political donations , as well as identifying the sources and targets of that funding.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Any suggestion that these arrangements provide a blank cheque for facility time is wrong. “The voluntary recognition agreement that DfT Operator has reached applies only to union representation for a small number of predominantly former DfT employees who transferred into DfT Operator and does not extend to the whole industry. “We are taking a pragmatic approach that reflects established industrial relations practice and means workplace issues can be dealt with constructively.”

The spokesman also denied that the agreement applied to DFT Operator staff who were members of the RMT, TSSA or Aslef unions, without giving further detail.