John O’Connell: Why are we paying for these activists who are plotting public sector chaos?

Members of more than 20 unions will stage a walk-out over pension reform. Among those striking on Wednesday are some of the largest public sector unions, including Unite and Unison who have nearly three million members between them, meaning some key services will grind to a halt.

Teachers won’t be teaching children, nurses won’t be looking after patients and dance development officers won’t be developing dance.

Ever since the Spending Review, the unions have been at loggerheads with a government trying to get the public finances in order; this latest scrap over public sector pensions could be just one of many large-scale strikes.

Planning this strike – and other campaigns against necessary budget cuts and overdue pension reform – must be an expensive business.

So it’s handy for the unions that funds are freed up to pay for it all via backdoor taxpayer-funded subsidies. New TaxPayers’ Alliance research shows that taxpayers fund trade unions to the tune of £113m a year. They receive over £30m in direct grants or payments, and another £80m in paid staff time.

By law, staff in the public sector are allowed time off to carry out union duties – it’s known as facility time.

Union representatives can take paid time to negotiate terms and conditions of employment, help with disciplinary or grievance procedures on behalf of trade union members or negotiate issues about trade union membership.

But the amount of time staff are allowed to take off isn’t quantified in the legislation; instead it is what is deemed “reasonable”.

However, our research showed that more than 250 public sector organisations don’t record facility time, which makes a mockery of the idea that managers can decide what’s reasonable. For example, is it reasonable that Leeds and Bradford Councils have the equivalent of 15 staff each working for unions, while Sheffield Council has 22? Those investigating this issue have found that trained nurses no longer working on wards because they’re working for a union full-time; that there are teachers who no longer see the inside of a classroom.

But our research has revealed the true extent of this practice and how much it costs taxpayers.

Across the public sector, the figures are huge:

There are more than 1,000 local authority staff who working for unions instead of their residents.

458 staff in government departments like the Ministry of Defence are working for unions instead of ensuring troops have the right equipment.

645 staff in quangos like HMRC aren’t making sure your taxes are correct, they’re working for unions.

508 NHS staff are not looking after patients.

There’s hundreds more who were hired by the police and fire services to keep the public safe, but are working for unions instead.

The Yorkshire Ambulance Trust has the equivalent of more than five staff working for a union. York council has nearly five, while Hull and the East Riding Councils have five or more themselves. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has nearly two, as does Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Outside of the context of strikes, this is an important political issue in its own right.

There is now significant pressure to fundamentally reform these arrangements. Francis Maude MP, the Cabinet Office Minister, announced a review of facility time to Whitehall employees at the Conservative Party Conference back in October. Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles is also a vocal opponent of this subsidy. Aidan Burley MP raised the issue in an adjournment debate in the House of Commons. He called taxpayer-funded facility time a “Spanish practice”.

But even without altering the legislation public sector bodies could use facility time at the same level as private sector organisations.

Public sector bodies spend 0.14 per cent of their annual pay bill on facility time, while private sector organisations spend 0.04 per cent of theirs.

We established that 2,840 full-time equivalent employees work for unions, so that means just dropping to private sector standards would release the equivalent of 2,028 public sector employees back to the jobs they were supposed to do. Firemen could put out fires and paramedics could get back in their ambulances. It would also save taxpayers £57m.

Perhaps it’s depressingly predictable that public sector unions stage marches awash with “no cuts” placards when they receive a fortune from taxpayers every year through backdoor subsidies. But their strong-arm tactics will not sit well with taxpayers beginning to realise they are funding this kind of political activity. Unions are engaging in classic taxpayer-funded lobbying, using taxpayers’ money to get more of it.

Families across the UK are making savings right now as they deal with tighter budgets and it’s unfair on them that the unions aren’t willing to accept this necessity in the public sector.

This subsidy should be scrapped entirely and facility time should be paid for out of union coffers. Until then, unions should work harder to match private sector levels to give taxpayers a break and more robust checks should be made to ensure that time off is indeed reasonable. They should pay for their own activists.

• John O’Connell is research director of The TaxPayers’ Alliance.