Funding used to support trade unions is set to be withdrawn in favour of creating more apprenticeship posts at North Lincolnshire Council
A £50,000 council fund used to support trade unions is set to be withdrawn in favour of creating more apprenticeships.
North Lincolnshire Council currently uses the money to pay for posts and an office for union representatives.
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North Lincolnshire Council's main office block in Scunthorpe
But council bosses have announced proposals to stop the funding and use the money to create an additional 10 apprenticeships at the authority instead.
Councillor Liz Redfern, the leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said: "We have an ambitious plan to deliver more apprenticeships for young people locally.
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"By removing taxpayers' money from funding trade union posts, we will be able to create 10 new apprenticeship posts.
"I know many residents struggle to reconcile that taxpayers' money is spent on payments to trade unions, especially when they supply millions of pounds to fund some political parties.
"Unions clearly pay an important role in representing their members.
"However, given that we have historically only subsidised two out of the 10 unions, there is also an issue of fairness.
"We of course remain committed to working with the unions in the interests of their members."
The unions that would be affected if the plans are implemented would be Unison and Unite.
The council is looking for the union staff to fulfil their roles on a voluntary basis, with time off in lieu, or get funding directly from the union itself.
Tony Riley, chairman of the council's 2,000-strong Unison branch, said: "If they wanted to be fair in funding, they should have split it between the 10 unions.
"That would have been a fair and proportional thing to do.
"We would have to find our funding through other sources in the region, I would have thought.
Dave Monaghan, regional officer for Unite union members at the council, said he suspected the authority was following Government directives on funding.
He said: "If they are not careful, they will find what they are doing is tearing apart the whole process for being able to represent employees and members of the council."
The council has so far created 40 apprenticeships.
It had previously earmarked £230,000 per year for the next four years to create a total of 120 placements.
Councillor Steve Swift, Labour Group Secretary, said: "Only North Lincolnshire Conservatives could be so arrogant as to claim that eradicating trade union representation is in the name of fairness.
"To assert that they are committed to working with the unions is next-to-unbelievable."
Comments
by englander61
Tuesday, October 02 2012, 11:30AM
“Are the apprenticeships with the council , Doe,s this mean office workers its not a trade now is it. Most people agree council is over staffed not long back one worker was reprimanded for twittering about people outside pub near market he could see them out his office window was he not given a course on how to twitter properly hope the council did not pay for this .At my work i would have been sacked .”
by Anise
Friday, September 28 2012, 9:45PM
“As a council tax payer I think this funding needs looking at but I'm a bit suspicious of motives when politicians run to the press with something. As Cllr Redfern has done this then I'm sure she will agree that it's fair that when the paperwork for this issue is done it should be published in full in this newspaper in keeping with her openness with the public.
Anise”
by Musicmagic
Friday, September 28 2012, 1:45PM
“Strange that the commitment to cut a staff representative post to pay for apprenticeships doesn't extend to the much larger £400,000 the Tories have awarded themselves in allowances? Commitment doesn't go that far then.......”
by HeavenlyManna
Friday, September 28 2012, 11:36AM
“I find it somewhat ominous that all of a sudden I find @NLLGUnison following me on Twitter presumably for retweeting BBC Look North political editor Tim Iredale and for my assumed endorsement of:
" @iredalepolitics Tory leader of North Lincs Council Liz Redfern says taxpayers would rather see £50,000 union funding reinvested into new apprenticeships"
So what's all that about @NLLG_Unison. We have enough putting up with the dubious, devious and cowardly censoring and stifling tactics (come threats and complaints of defamation to stifle all dissent) from Scunthorpe Labourites without you Unions kicking off as well!!
PS Time all you lefties stop brow beating us and insulting us with your typically outmoded, misguided, deluded rhetoric and tactics of scaremongering and holding us to ransom on everything. AND moreso, woke up to the real world of broken Britain (post 13 years of Neu Liebour) and smell cups of non tax payer subsidised coffee!!”
by englander61
Friday, September 28 2012, 9:51AM
“How is it my red arrow doe,s not work when i click on NLLG_Unison post yet seems to work on all other post , Tax rate payers fed up propping up council workers Pensions and now unions what will be next . And will these apprentices be proper trades men or more office workers added to our all ready bloated council .”
by crickfan
Friday, September 28 2012, 9:00AM
“hurtingfan - you're forgetting that it's Labour that left us in this mess. Time for a reality check....”
by thackery
Friday, September 28 2012, 4:54AM
“The world has moved on in the thirty years since the miners' strike. The purpose of unions in the 21st century is to improve the communication between employers and employees.
Liz Redfern's attempt to make it difficult for unions to carry out this role will end up costing local tax payers thousands of pounds in employment tribunal fees .
The unions should be left alone to get on with the job of smoothing out problems in the workplace before the problems blow up and get out of hand.”
by DavidMarshall
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 8:41PM
“The question that should be asked is why are the council using tax payers money to fund the unions anyway, not all tax payers agree with what the unions are doing, surely tax coming from people should be used to benefit those people and not just workers in the public sector.
Furthermore I would like to raise the question. Why are councils having any links with Unions, Surely they should be politically neutral and there to serve the people who live within their area”
by DavidMarshall
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 8:41PM
“The question that should be asked is why are the council using tax payers money to fund the unions anyway, not all tax payers agree with what the unions are doing, surely tax coming from people should be used to benefit those people and not just workers in the public sector.
Furthermore I would like to raise the question. Why are councils having any links with Unions, Surely they should be politically neutral and there to serve the people who live within their area”
by DavidMarshall
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 8:41PM
“The question that should be asked is why are the council using tax payers money to fund the unions anyway, not all tax payers agree with what the unions are doing, surely tax coming from people should be used to benefit those people and not just workers in the public sector.
Furthermore I would like to raise the question. Why are councils having any links with Unions, Surely they should be politically neutral and there to serve the people who live within their area”