Around £19million of British taxpayer money is being spent on trade union "away days" for teaching staff, according to new analysis of Government data .
Figures published by the Taxpayer's Alliance shows some education staff are spending all of their working hours taking part in activities for their trade union, known as "facility time."
Organisations in the public sector that employ more than 49 staff are legally required to submit data on the use of facility time in their organisation.
While this usually includes bargaining over pay and planning strike action, any days spent on strike are unpaid and counted separately.
Overall, £18.9m was spent by the UK Taxpayer on facility time last year for staff across 631 education bodies, including schools and universities.
In 2024, the Open University recorded the highest facility time bill with almost £600,000 spent on trade union roles in working hours, reports The Telegraph.
The figure for 2024 was slightly higher than for 2023, when the taxpayer bill for facility time in the education sector reached £18.1m.
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|The National Education Union
Investigations campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance Joanna Marchong said: "Parents will be dismayed to learn that while classrooms sit empty and strikes disrupt children’s education, taxpayers are still picking up the bill for teachers to spend lesson time on union duties.
"Facility time is a luxury the education sector can’t afford.
With schools losing hundreds of teaching days to walkouts and universities deep in financial trouble, every penny should go to front-line teaching, not subsidising union activism.
"Ministers must take a firm stance and ensure that taxpayer-funded institutions prioritise students’ needs instead of funding teaching staff who spend their time on union duties."
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|The University of Bristol had five employees were recorded as spending 100 per cent of their time as union representatives
Some of the biggest spenders on facility time were Multi-academy trusts.
This includes the Wessex Multi Academy Trust, which spent more than £261,000, and the Kemnal Academies Trust, which spent nearly £197,000.
Elsewhere, six universities had multiple staff working all of their working hours on trade union activities, including the University of Bristol, where five employees were recorded as spending 100 per cent of their time as union representatives.
At 55 education organisations, some staff spent 100 per cent of their working hours on their trade union duties, the figures show
Universities minister Baroness Smith told The Telegraph in May that many universities have "lost sight over their responsibility to protect public money".
Former senior Conservative cabinet minister Esther McVey wrote to councils with high spending levels last year and urged them to consider introducing a cap on facility time.
The MP for Tatton said local authorities should take lessons from the civil service, saw spending on facility time drop from 0.26 per cent of total pay costs in 2012 to 0.05 per cent in 2024,