Bradford Council is being urged to stop using taxpayers’ cash to pay union officials’ wages and office costs amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

The demand has come from Conservative group leader Councillor Glen Miller, who spoke out after Communities Minister Bob Neil also revealed there was concern at Parliamentary level about councils paying union stewards out of their own funds.

Coun Miller said: “We have been saying for a long time now that Bradford Council should not be spending £300,000 per year paying for the wages and offices of trade union staff while cutting services and making our own staff redundant.

“Union members’ subscriptions should be used to pay union employees.”

Coun Miller also pointed out that Education Bradford, the private company that supports the district’s schools, spends more than £200,000 on union employee wages and office costs so it means more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money is being spent on union staff costs.

He said: “I call upon the Labour leadership to respond to the Minister’s call for the merits of union officials and office facilities funded by councils to be urgently reviewed.”

But Bradford Council leader Ian Greenwood said at a time of massive threat, union representatives were clearly important to staff and to the Council as it negotiated through what he described as “the most difficult time our Council has ever seen”.

He said: “It’s typical of the Conservatives to be attacking staff at the most vulnerable time when they should be attacking their own Government for targeting the most vulnerable people in our community.”

The Council’s Liberal Democrat group leader, Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, also pointed to the importance of unions being able to represent the interests of staff.

She said: “There’s no problem with looking at value for taxpayers’ money but what we mustn’t do is attack union officials when they are providing a valuable service and we must be getting a valuable service.”

  • Read the full story Monday’s T&A