Time off Work for Trade Union Duties

An employer must allow an employee, who is an official of an independent trade union recognised by that employer, to take paid time off during their working hours in order to carry out their union duties.  The union must be recognised to some extent for bargaining. Representational rights or some lesser form of recognition is not enough.

Specified purposes

Trade union officials may claim time off work either to carry out official duties, such as collective bargaining or representing members, or to undergo training which is relevant to being able to carry out these duties.

Collective bargaining

The ACAS code lists examples of trade union duties where an official should have reasonable time off.

These include duties concerned with:
terms and conditions of employment
the termination or suspension of employment
allocation of work or the duties between employees or groups of employees
discipline
trade union membership
facilities for officials of trade unions
machinery for negotiation or consultation.

The courts usually adopt a wide interpretation of the right to time off. The ACAS code states that reasonable time off may be sought to:

prepare for negotiations
inform members of progress
explain outcomes to members.

Duties

The duties an employee can claim time off for are essentially a matter between the official and their union.

Permission must be got from the union to attend meetings and the right to time off only applies to time off work for relevant negotiations or other industrial duties agreed by the employer.

Negotiations can include preparing for bargaining such as union meetings to formulate strategy. Ultimately, it is for the employment tribunal to decide whether the duty in question is sufficiently close to collective bargaining to be a duty 'concerned with' negotiations.

The ACAS code paragraph 12 sets out those issues that the duty must relate to. These are:

terms and conditions of employment (including pensions, equal opportunities, vocational training)
the physical working environment (including health, safety and welfare)
hiring and firing, termination and suspension of employment (including redundancy arrangements)
allocation of work (including demarcation issues, job evaluation, grading, flexible working arrangements)
discipline (including disciplinary procedures)
union membership (including representational rights and induction procedures)
facilities for union officials
negotiating consultation and other machinery.

Not only must the reason be on the list it must also be something for which the employer has recognised the union.

Industrial relations duties

A union official may also seek time off for wider industrial relations duties.  Those duties must pass three tests before they qualify as appropriate for time off

duties have to be performed on behalf of employees of the employer concerned
the duties must relate to an industrial relations function
the function must be one which the employer has agreed to let the union perform.

There is no right to time off for trade union activities which consist of taking industrial action. However, it is possible for an official to claim time off if they are representing members taking part in industrial action.