Time Off for Trade Unions - Payment Calculation

The payment allocation, for each Trade Union, will be based on the following:

Standard Allocation

• A core element of 150 hours and,
• An additional hour for every Trade Union member.

This will be based on the membership levels of each Trade Union as confirmed by Annual Audit of Trade Union Membership as at 1 May each year. For this audit “a trade union member” must be an employee of the University who on the census date has been a fully paid up member of the relevant union for at least three months. The University will request the membership levels from the Regional Office, through the local branch in order to have independent confirmation of the membership numbers.

Additional Allocation

It is recognised that there may be issues, which arise from time to time, which require Trade Union involvement or when participation by Trade Union colleagues would be helpful e.g. to support strategic initiatives. In such cases, an additional allocation of facilities time will be made available. This will be related to the specific area of work and agreed at an early stage in order to facilitate appropriate Trade Union involvement. Where known, this will be agreed during the summer term. The time provided will be based on the number and duration of meetings likely to take place in the year, whether any preparation time is required and the number of TU representatives required within the meeting composition.

Regional/National Days

Each Trade Union may have up to 5 days per year that will form part of the additional allocation noted above for attendance at Regional or National conferences or meetings (but not demonstrations or similar) related to Trade Union support in Higher Education.

In Year Payments

The University of York and the recognised Trade Unions note that It is accepted that there may be occasions when specific and extraordinary work is required which falls outside predicted Trade Union duties. The above does not preclude additional facilities time being provided to one or more Trade Union to reflect additional demands that are being placed on representatives. Application for additional facilities should be made to the Employee Relations and HR Policy Manager.

It is accepted that the University of York and the recognised Trade Unions will identify and, where appropriate, agree such work at as early a stage as possible. Payment for such work will be agreed at the JNCC.

Allocation for Organisational Change

In recognition of the role of Trade Union representatives in supporting employees through organisational change, additional facilities time will be made available in year to support organisational change projects in accordance with the following table:-

Number of employees affected by change initiative	Allocated in-year
Less than 5	None - considered to be case work and time attributed from the standard allocation.
5 - 25	10 hours plus 1 hours per member
25 - 100	20 hours plus 1 hours per member
100+	40 hours plus 1 hours per member

As organisational change programmes may involve members from different Trade Unions, the above allowance is to be divided by agreement between the campus Trade Unions. Confirmation of the allowance will be provided by the HR representative supporting the organisational change programme. Details of the split of the allocation between representatives should be provided to the Employee Relations and HR Policy Manager.

Amount of Payment

The payments will be based on the hourly rate (i.e. current grade and salary point) at the level of the nominated Trade Union representatives’ current grade and salary point. Therefore the payments to Departments in respect of facilities time will rely upon the information provided by each Trade Union about the number of hours allocated to each Trade Union representative.

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• Last reviewed and updated: 5 August 2021