1.1. This Paper Outlines Actions Which Are Proposed for the Purposes of Reviewing the Trade

/ Hampshire County Council /
/ Schools Forum / Item 8a /
/ 1 May 2014 (Original - 21 January 2014) /
/ Trade Union and Public Duties Funding /
/ Report of the Director of Children’s Services /

Contact name:

/ Craig Dyson, Interim Head of Education Personnel Services

Tel:

/ 02380 383504 /

Email:

/

1.  Summary

1.1.  This paper outlines actions which are proposed for the purposes of reviewing the Trade Union and Public Duties funding known as the Facilities Agreement due to the continued pressure on school and County Council budgets and the information contained in the Department for Communities and Local Government Report “Taxpayer funding of trade unions – delivering sensible savings in local government”.

1.2.  This report has also been developed in the context of a Department for Education review of trade union facilities time in schools, for which there is currently no outcome. Education Personnel Services have contributed to this national consultation on behalf of both the local authority and Hampshire maintained schools.

1.3.  The purpose of the proposals within this report is to review the trade union consultation and negotiation framework to ensure that it is fit for purpose and can be sustained in light of the pressures facing school budgets. The framework needs to treat recognised unions fairly and equally while creating efficiencies in practice and workloads along with realising significant cost savings for the future.

1.4.  This paper specifically excludes Hampshire academies as responsibility for trade union consultation transfers to the relevant academy trust upon conversion. It is worth noting that Academy Schools involvement and contribution to this budget would be welcomed and ease the pressure on the budget.

1.5.  The paper sets out the associated costs and the impact on the Trade Union and Public Duties budget and changes to the structure and interactions between parties.

1.6.  Schools Forum is asked to make a decision in relation to reduction to funding and changes to operational systems for facilities time in the maintained sector, along with key principles to be used in the drafting of a modernised facilities arrangement.

2.  Background and current arrangements in Hampshire

The recognised unions

2.1.  Hampshire County Council recognises a total of 13 trade unions for various staff groups. A list of the recognised unions and the staff groups that they represent is listed within Appendix 1 of this report.

2.2.  Although in theory, all are recognised by maintained schools through the recognition agreements in place between Hampshire and these unions, there are a total of nine trade unions (six for teaching staff and three for school support staff) that, in practice, operate within schools.

2.3.  Whilst Hampshire is not the employer in all maintained schools, through custom and practice, Hampshire has consulted on behalf of all maintained schools, including voluntary aided, foundation and trust schools where the Governing Body is the employer.

The purpose of union recognition

2.4.  The fundamental purpose of trade union recognition is to give an opportunity to trade unions to provide a view on behalf of the staff that they represent (be consulted with) and to engage in collective bargaining (negotiation of terms and conditions) with the employer.

2.5.  Due to the Government’s position and the national pay and conditions framework for teaching staff, local collective bargaining between teachers’ trade unions and Hampshire County Council is limited. Local support staff representatives have more influence, including negotiating collective agreements such as EHCC 2007.

2.6.  There are five areas where recognised trade unions have a statutory right to be consulted with:

·  Redundancy situations where more than 20 employees are proposed to be made redundant by the employer (under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992).

·  Transfers (under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 – this legislation is shortly to be updated by the consultation rights for unions have been retained).

·  Health and Safety (under various provisions including Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; Safety Representative and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999).

·  Pensions (The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006; Occupational Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers) (Modification for Multi-employer Schemes) Regulations 2006 and the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 as amended).

·  Workplace training and learning (under the Employment Act 2002 where a union has appointed a Union Learning Representative).

2.7.  In practice, consultation on pensions related matters takes place at a national level and not a local level given the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and Local Government Pension Scheme are national schemes. In all of the other areas, there is an obligation to consult with the recognised trade unions at a local level.

2.8.  As a matter of custom and practice, the Local Authority has also consulted with recognised trade unions on employment policies and procedures in place for all staff. These policies and procedures define the processes and discretions the employer will exercise. This is not a statutory obligation but has been undertaken where practicable to assist in maintaining a constructive employee relations climate. This framework has facilitated the production of a range of policies and procedures for the benefit of the collective maintained school sector. These form part of the Manual of Personnel Practice which can be adopted by Governing Bodies without necessity for further consultation at school level other than that required to localise the policies.

2.9.  Also, as a matter of custom and practice, the Local Authority has consulted with the recognised trade unions on school improvement priorities and the strategic direction of the education provision within the authority including it’s provision and support for schools.

2.10.  The Local Authority in practice either leads or supports all maintained schools to undertake these consultations. Redundancy and transfers are dealt with on an individual school basis with the school engaged in the consultation process, but consultation on policies, terms and conditions issues and education policy and school improvement matters are led by Hampshire County Council, with input from all maintained schools through the relevant standing committee prior to consultation being initiated.

The right to be accompanied at hearings and the right to participate in industrial action

2.11.  The right to be accompanied at hearings and the right to participate in industrial action are explicitly separate from trade union recognition.

2.12.  Therefore, whether or not the employer recognises a particular union, individuals have a statutory right to be accompanied at particular employment meetings (including disciplinary and grievance meetings). Additionally, an employer may be subject to industrial action by a trade union whether or not the trade union is recognised by the employer.

The right to facilities

2.13.  Under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and the Employment Act 2002, trade union recognition also provides the right to trade unions to be granted facilities.

2.14.  Facilities includes time and administrative facilities to support the recognised trade union representatives employed by the authority to undertake the collective bargaining and consultation functions described in paragraphs 2.4 – 2.10 and representation of members at hearings and meetings (as described in paragraphs 2.11 – 2.12). Where unions are recognised, there is also a right to an allocation of time to enable representation of groups of members or individual members in a range of employee relations areas. The purpose here is that where a union is recognised and there are local representatives, there is more likely to be an open dialogue between staff and management which could lead to the potential resolution of issues to the benefit of all parties involved. Support to undertake these roles also includes support with time off to train in aspects relevant to carrying out their trade union duties.

2.15.  The 1992 Act specifies that an employer who permits an employee to take time off must pay them for the time off taken. The Act does not specify the amount of time that a representative is entitled to take off but specifies that it must be ‘reasonable in all of the circumstances’ and have regard to the relevant provisions of a Code of Practice issued by ACAS. Employees may bring a complaint to an Employment Tribunal where an employer has failed to permit time off in accordance with this legislation.

Facilities time in Hampshire

2.16.  For the reasons described in paragraphs above, Hampshire County Council currently grants facilities time to a number of the recognised unions listed in Appendix 1.

2.17.  At present, the facilities budget for the six teacher unions, which is managed by Education Personnel Services, on behalf of schools, is funded from monies contributed to by Hampshire maintained schools and the facilities budget for the remaining seven trade unions is funded from monies contributed to by Hampshire County Council’s corporate funding. This is despite the fact that teacher trade unions may be called upon to represent teachers employed within Children’s Services and other trade unions listed in Appendix 1 may be called upon to represent support staff members in schools.

2.18.  It is recognised that there is an imbalance in this approach since there is a workforce of approximately 350 teachers in the department being represented by teacher trade union representatives funded by schools but workforce of approximately 16,200 support staff in schools being represented by support staff union representatives funded corporately. There are approximately 8500 substantive teachers in Hampshire maintained schools.

2.19.  The information within this section on current arrangements focuses on teacher trade union time since this is the system contributed to by schools. Facilities time for teacher unions has been provided to enable individuals to contribute at a number of levels. Detail of how this has been calculated is provided in Appendix 2:

·  School – each teacher trade union may elect a maximum of one representative for each establishment for the purposes of matters related to that school only. Time is not funded through the facilities budget, but adhoc time may be agreed by the headteacher, subject to the release not interfering with the smooth running of the school.

·  Local – each teacher trade union is provided with an allocation of time in relation to their local roles. The calculation of this time is based on the level of membership in the local association area. Each association must then determine how this time is shared amongst its local officers.

·  County – each teacher trade union is provided with an allocation of time in relation to their County roles, based on membership levels of the whole county. In addition, there are three further roles that are granted a proportion of time off to support co-ordination of trade union activity across the county. These roles are known as Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary of Teachers’ Liaison Panel (TLP). There are currently five teachers employed in the county who have funded release to act as County Secretaries. Voice does not have a County representative at present. Two additional teacher representatives undertake the Chair and Secretary TLP roles and the Vice-Chair role has been added to one of the County Secretary roles (with increased allocation of time).

·  National level – Hampshire has recognised that on occasion, local representatives will be elected to national roles to contribute to policy discussion and collective bargaining with government and its agencies. Where this occurs, a discussion takes place with Hampshire County Council regarding the contribution of time provided.

·  Casework – a number of representatives are also trained caseworkers and undertake casework involving teaching staff.

2.20.  Teachers’ Liaison Panel is the body which includes all county and local representatives. This body currently has 17 members based on the allocations provided.

2.21.  The detail of the meetings attended by members of Teachers’ Liaison Panel is provided in Appendix 3.

Operation of the facilities budget

2.22.  The majority of maintained schools de-delegate monies to the public duties budget based on proposals previously put to Schools Forum. This budget funds the cost of staff absence for the purposes of public duties including duties such as jury service and trade union representation. The budget is overseen by Education Personnel Services on behalf of Hampshire maintained schools. A breakdown of the current budget allocations to Unions is provided in Appendix 4. The budget also covers other costs of administration, venue hire etc.

2.23.  Special schools and Education Centres are unable to de-delegate and therefore SLA arrangements have been established to enable these schools and centres to benefit from the collective arrangements. At present there is a buy back rate of 100%, but achieving this has been a challenge for various reasons:

·  the cost of the service level agreement is perceived by some to be high;

·  these establishments have more support staff than teachers and a number of these establishments have expressed a view that access to this budget should be on an equal basis for all categories of staff; and

·  whilst these schools and centres recognised the contribution of the unions in maintaining a good employee relations climate, these schools and centres have felt pressure to purchase an agreement which is perceived by some to be high cost, in the face of budgetary pressure, to benefit from the collective consultation framework rather than undertake such consultation locally.

2.24.  Academy schools are separate from the authority and responsibility for union relationship for the purposes in paragraphs 2.1 – 2.3 and with unions listed in Appendix 1 transfers to each Academy Trust. Upon conversion, academy schools take back their contribution to the budget.

2.25.  For Hampshire academies, there are various options regarding how they continue to conduct such relationships and one of these is to opt to buy into Hampshire’s arrangements for consultation and/or casework elements, regardless of whether they use the Hampshire model policies or develop their own local policies. This can be undertaken on an adhoc basis, based on the hourly rate of the representatives for a particular consultation or on an SLA basis (equivalent contribution to Hampshire maintained schools) for unlimited access to the employed trade union representatives. Academy Schools buying a SLA would be the preferred option.