Amount spend by IPSA on trade union activities

Request

Information about the total amount of money paid to trade unions by Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the amount of staff time spent on trade union duties and / or activities and the payment of subscriptions

You further outlined your request for information as follows:

  1. The total amount of money paid to all trade unions for financial years a) 2010-11 and b) 2011-12. Where possible please provide a list of total payments made to each different trade union. However if this disaggregated information is not available please continue to provide a total figure for trade union payments. In response to this question, please only include direct payments to the unions from your organisation, not membership dues deducted from staff salaries.

  2. Please state:

    1. Which trade unions your organisation provide staff time to work on trade union duties and / or activities (sometimes called ‘Trade Union facility time’) in i) 2010-11 and ii) 2011-12.

    2. The number of full time equivalent staff that were provided for each trade union in i) 2010-11 and ii) 2011-12.

  3. Does your organisation automatically deduct trade union subscriptions from staff salaries in the payroll process in order to pass them on to the union? If so, how much did your organisation charge each union for this service in a) 2010-11 and b) 2011-12?

Response

IPSA holds some of the information that you request.

In answer to the first and third parts of your request, IPSA staff members can elect to have trade unions subscriptions deducted from their salaries.  Subscription deductions are subsequently passed on to the trade union – we do not charge the trade union for this service.  Besides the above, we do not make any direct payments to trade unions.

In answer to the second part of your request, IPSA staff members are entitled to take reasonable time during working hours to attend to trade union matters.  As IPSA is a small organisation, a relatively small amount of staff time is devoted to trade union activity.  Due to the relatively small amount of union activity undertaken by our staff members, we do not hold a record of this information.  Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a reasonable estimate.  The relevant trade union is the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).

Ref:
FOI2012-A061
Disclosure:
8 August 2012
Categories:
IPSA - STAFF
Exemptions Applied:
None