£30 million!The council spends big bucks to cover the costs of staff doing union work

As new government figures show, the council is spending millions of pounds to allow its officials to moonlight as trade union activists.

At a time when strikes have crippled services including transport and health services, local authorities have spent a staggering £30m to cover the costs of workers engaged in trade union activities.

According to Cabinet Office data, nine out of the 10 authorities spending the most on union activity (a total of £5.2m in taxpayer cash) are run by trade unions.This includes Birmingham The City Council spent £1.2m while being criticized for ‘serious mismanagement’ by the housing watchdog.

transportation of London – Operated by the Labor Mayor Sadik Khanfinanced by adding £40 to the council tax of the citizens of London TfL – £6.4m spent on union facility hours as a series of strikes by highly paid tube drivers brought capital to a standstill.

Facility time cash represents wages paid to civil servants while they perform union activities such as handing out leaflets and planning strikes. Militant trade unions such as Unite, Unison and GMB represent workers in many municipalities and are one of the Labor Party’s biggest financial backers.

Congress receives three-quarters of its revenue from council and business taxes, and the rest from government subsidies.

Last night, Tory MP Mark Jenkinson said in exchange for generous donations to the union’s war fund that it was “proof that the Labor Council is out of control and throwing taxpayer money at the unions.” rice field.

He added: “It’s no wonder workers want to do away with transparency rules about facility hours to keep this hidden. Taxpayers have the right to know where their cash goes.” An analysis of newly released data shows that Glasgow City Council, run by SNP, spent the most time on facilities last year and paid officials £1.3m for time spent organizing union activities. I was paying my wages.

Meanwhile, trade union-run councils spent £534,735 on union premises, including South Lanarkshire Council, Nottingham City Council (£385,827) and Tower Hamlets Council (£384,729). Spent hundreds of thousands. This is despite many of these parliaments demanding more public funds from the central government and forcing residents to pay parliamentary tax rates, the highest in the country.

The Association of Local Governments stated that “adequate discussion and consultation with staff requires the use of reasonable facility time by union representatives, so some reasonable expenditure is inevitable. We take steps to ensure that it is used properly.

Last year, then-Secretary of Transportation Grant Shaps (now Secretary of Commerce) announced a cap on facility hours as part of a plan to crush union power and prevent the nation from being held for ransom. promised.