Information about Facility Time at the University. What is Facility Time? Facility time is the provision of paid time off from an employee’s normal role to undertake trade union duties as a trade union representative. The following Facility Time Agreement, effective 1 August 2022, sets out the time-off provisions provided by the University to enable branch officials and representatives of UCU, UNSON and Unite to fulfil their union duties properly and effectively. Facility Time Agreement Information for Managers and Trade Union Representatives The University recognises that a truly representative union and joint and effective working between unions are vital components of its commitment to partnership working and effective employee relations. Trade union representatives are entitled by law to carry out their duties and to take part in approved trade union activities without loss of earnings or suffering any detriment. New and existing representatives are also entitled to reasonable time off to be trained to fulfil these duties. Facility time is received when an employee takes time off from their post to carry out duties as a trade union representative. HR will arrange a regular facility time payment to enable managers to backfill an employees’ role whilst they are undertaking their trade union role. New representatives will be afforded reasonable time off for training from their substantive post before being allocated facility time by their union, and therefore undertaking any union duties allocated to them. Existing representatives will be afforded time off for new and refresher training from within their allocated facility time. With the advance agreement of the University’s Senior HR Partner for Employee Relations and Employment Policy, representatives who work part time or on a GH contract will be paid for the additional hours spent undertaking their approved training, to a combined maximum of 35 hours per week. For further information on your responsibility as the line manager, please see the Government guidance: Rights of Trade Union Reps Frequently Asked Questions What is Facility Time and who is eligible? Facility time is the provision of paid time off from an employee’s normal role to undertake trade union duties as a trade union representative. Trade union representatives are entitled by law to carry out their without loss of earnings or suffering any detriment. The University enables representatives to take time off from their substantive posts to perform their role by providing ‘facility time’. Each union is provided with a total amount of facility time, expressed in full-time equivalent hours (FTE), to allocate to individual representatives. The allocated hours are then given a financial value – based on the representative’s annual salary, or hourly rate if employed on a guaranteed minimum hours (GH) contract - and the resultant sum (inclusive of employers on costs) is transferred to the representative’s School/Department to cover the time invested in representative activity. How are the schools/departments reimbursed? The Employee Relations and Employment Policy team arrange the transfer of a regular facility time payment to the representative’s School/Department to cover the time invested in representative activity, enabling them to backfill the role. Schools/Departments are at liberty to backfill on a like for like, week by week basis, or to aggregate and use the facility time to fund one-off activities related to the representative’s substantive work. An audit will be undertaken annually to ensure Schools/Departments are releasing staff in line with the facility time they have been granted and are appropriately spending the re-allocated budget to alleviate the representative’s substantive workload. If you have a member of staff in receipt of Facility Time, and have any questions, please contact the team at ER.EP@ed.ac.uk Is time off allowed for training? Yes. New and existing representatives are also entitled to reasonable time off to be trained to fulfil these duties. New representatives will be afforded reasonable time off for training from their substantive post before being allocated facility time by their union, and therefore undertaking any union duties allocated to them. Existing representatives will be afforded time off for new and refresher training from within their allocated facility time. With the advance agreement of the University’s Senior HR Partner for Employee Relations and Employment Policy, representatives who work part time or on a GH contract will be paid for the additional hours spent undertaking their training, to a combined maximum of 35 hours per week. If you have any questions relating to Facility Time, please contact the Employee Relations and Employee Policy team at ER.EP@ed.ac.uk This article was published on 2024-06-26
