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Employees

Time off for trade union duties and activities

Employees who are members of a trade union recognised by their employer have a statutory right to take a reasonable amount of paid and unpaid time off for certain union duties and activities.

Paid time off for union duties

If you're an employee and an official (or an elected representative such as a shop steward or convenor) of a trade union that's recognised by your employer, you can take reasonable paid time off to carry out some union duties. These include:

  • negotiating terms and conditions of employment, helping with disciplinary or grievance procedures on behalf of union members (including accompanying workers at disciplinary or grievance hearings), or negotiating issues about union membership
  • discussing issues that affect union members, such as redundancies or the sale of the business
  • being trained for your union work

If you're a union learning representative, you have the right to take reasonable paid time off for this during working hours, as long as your union has given notice in writing to your employer that you're a learning representative and your union is recognised by your employer.

The duties for which a union learning representative can take paid time off are:

  • to analyse learning or training needs
  • to provide information and to arrange or promote learning or training
  • to discuss learning or training with the employer
  • for training as a learning representative

You'll find a detailed list of examples of relevant trade union duties in the Acas Code of Practice (Labour Relations Agency (LRA) Code of Practice in Northern Ireland).

The rate you're paid for this time off is what you're normally paid. If your earnings vary, you should be paid according to your average hourly earnings.

Unpaid time off for trade union activities

Employees who are members of a recognised union are allowed to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off during the working day to take part in union activity or to talk to a union learning representative. You can take time off for:

  • going to workplace meetings to talk about and vote on negotiations with your employer
  • going to a meeting with a full-time union official to discuss issues relevant to the workplace
  • voting in a union election

If you're a union official, you can also take unpaid time off to go to union conferences and meetings, including policy-making committees of the union.

Although, there's no statutory right to be paid for this time off, some employers make payments in some circumstances. Your contract of employment may explain whether you have the right to be paid.

As time off for union activities is not usually paid, meetings are often held during breaks such as lunchtime.

Although industrial action is a trade union activity there is no right to time off for it. However, union officials do have the right to time off to take part in negotiations to avoid industrial action.

What is 'reasonable'?

It's important for union officials and representatives, and employers, to be reasonable in handling requests for time off for union duties and activities. There's no legal definition of reasonable time off. You need to take into account the type of employer, the need to keep production going, the importance of health and safety at work and the amount of time off you've already had.

Those seeking time off for trade union duties and/or activities should provide their employer with as much notice as possible and give details of the purpose of the time off and how much time off is required.

The Acas Code of Practice recommends that unions and individual employers have formal agreements about time off for union activities.

What if you are not allowed to take time off?

If you are sacked for exercising your rights to take time off for union activities or duties it will be unfair. You can then make an unfair dismissal claim to an Employment Tribunal (or Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland). You can also apply to the Employment Tribunal for an interim relief order, under which your employer has to take you back until your case is decided. You should consult your full time union official about interim relief.

If your employer won't let you take reasonable time off for union duties or activities, or if you are a trade union official or learning representative and your employer doesn't pay you for some or all of the time off, you have grounds for a complaint to an Employment Tribunal.

Before taking the matter to an Employment Tribunal try and sort out the problem through discussion with your employer, perhaps involve a full time union officer or see if your employer will involve Acas. Complaining to an Employment Tribunal should be a last resort. It's better to try to resolve disputes through discussion and conciliation.

Where to get help

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) publishes a Code of Practice about rights to time off for union duties and activities, and offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues. You can call the Acas helpline on 08457 47 47 47 from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday.

The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues for residents of Northern Ireland. You can contact the LRA on 028 9032 1442 from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday.

Your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) can provide free and impartial advice. You can find your local CAB office in the phone book or online.

If you are a member of a trade union, you can get help, advice and support from them.

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