Requirement to publish facility time taken by trade union officials

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 (“the 2017 Regulations”) came into force on 1 April 2017. The 2017 Regulations impose requirements on relevant public employers to publish information in relation to facility time taken by trade union officials. The deadline to publish the information is 31 July 2018.

The 2017 Regulations apply to the proprietor of an Academy school and the governing body of a foundation school or voluntary aided school (provided certain criteria are met). This generally means that Academy Trusts and foundation / VA schools will need to publish the below information on their website and include it in the Trust / school’s annual report (if it produces one).

The 2017 Regulations say that if the “employee number condition” is met in respect of a “relevant period” (12 months beginning with 1 April) the employer must provide certain information in respect of that period.

The "employee number condition" is met if the employer has a full-time equivalent employee number of more than 49 throughout the entirety of any seven of the months in the relevant period. The full-time equivalent employee number is calculated by establishing the number of full-time employees and adding to that number “such fraction as is just and reasonable in respect of those employees who are not full-time”.

Therefore, if the school had a full-time equivalent employee number of more than 49 throughout the entirety of 7 months starting on 1 April 2017, it will need to publish the relevant information by 31 July 2018.

The information that will need to be published is as follows.

1. What was the total number of your employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period?

Table 1 – Relevant union officials

Number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period

Full-time equivalent employee number

2. How many of your employees who were relevant union officials employed during the relevant period spent a) 0%, b) 1%-50%, c) 51%-99% or d) 100% of their working hours on facility time?

 

Table 2 – Percentage of time spent on facility time

Percentage of time 0% 1-50% 51%-99% 100%

Number of employees

 

Provide the figures requested in the first column of the table below to determine the percentage of your total pay bill spent on paying employees who were relevant union officials for facility time during the relevant period.

Table 3 – Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time

First Column	Figures
Provide the total cost of facility time
Provide the total pay bill
Provide the percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time, calculated as: (total cost of facility time ÷ total pay bill) x 100

As a percentage of total paid facility time hours, how many hours were spent by employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period on paid trade union activities?

Table 4 – Paid trade union activities

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (total hours spent on paid trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period ÷ total paid facility time hours) x 100

The Regulations state how to calculate the total cost of facility time, how to calculate the total pay bill, and how to calculate the full-time equivalent employee number.