Why Employer-Paid Trade Union Representation Doesn’t Work - Pt2

Why It’s Shocking That Many British Trade Unions Don’t Pay Their Reps.

Most British Labour-affiliated Trade Unions collect millions in membership subscriptions every year. Members rightly assume that some of this money funds training, legal advice, and representation when jobs and livelihoods are at risk.

Yet in many cases, this isn’t true. Instead of employing independent Trade Union Reps like those in the Workers of England Union (WEU), they rely on:

• Lay reps – unpaid volunteers juggling heavy caseloads in their own time.
• Facility time – employer-paid release from work, used as a substitute for proper union funding.
• Restricted legal support – access to professional advice rationed, delayed, or dependent on head office approval.

So why don’t these British Labour-affiliated Trade Unions pay their own reps? The Workers of England Union explains why not.

1. Historical habits and institutional inertia

For decades, British Trade Unions have relied on volunteer “lay reps” drawn from the shop floor. Once a symbol of solidarity and direct democracy, this tradition has quietly become a cost-saving measure.

Many Trade Unions still operate as if it were 1975, relying on unpaid or employer-paid reps to perform work that now demands professional advocacy.

Meanwhile, employers have modernised, investing in HR departments, lawyers, and consultants. The balance of power has shifted, but Trade Union funding for representation has not.

The WEU rejects this outdated approach. We regularly meet HR teams who misquote employment law or try to intimidate workers. Our paid and trained reps know how to challenge such tactics. What chance does an undertrained, employer-paid rep have?

2. Facility time has become a crutch

Facility time was designed as a supplement to Trade Union resources, not a substitute. Yet many Trade Unions now rely on employers to pay for their reps’ time.

This dependence on employer goodwill means that if management cuts or restricts facility time, a Trade Union’s ability to represent its members collapses overnight. It also allows Trade Union leaderships to avoid responsibility for properly funding and supporting their own representatives.

The WEU does not operate this way. Our reps are paid, trained, and accountable only to the Union and its members.

3. Centralised control and political funding

Politicised British Trade Unions have become bureaucratic and centralised. They hold large financial reserves but prioritise political lobbying, national campaigns, and media operations over workplace representation.

Paying thousands of local reps directly would mean decentralising control and increasing costs, steps many Trade Union leaderships resist. Head offices prefer the predictability of employer-paid facility time and employer-paid reps, even though this weakens local representation.

The result is a hollowing out of the movement’s most important function: defending members when it matters.

The Workers of England Union is different. We are not politically affiliated, and our members’ subscriptions fund our legal costs, reps, and campaigns directly related to improving working conditions and lives across England.

4. A lack of accountability to members and reps

Expecting employer-paid reps to handle complex disciplinary or grievance cases against professional HR teams is indefensible. Many employer-paid reps handle dozens of cases without pay, proper legal backup, or access to documents. When they burn out, no one replaces them.

This model is unsustainable and unfair, especially as some British Trade Unions sit on multi-million-pound surpluses.

In contrast, WEU reps have access to full legal advice, and their caseloads are managed to ensure they are fully prepared for hearings.

5. Too interested in political funding

Representation shouldn’t depend on who your employer is or how generous their facility time policy might be. But that’s exactly what happens when Trade Unions rely on employer-paid reps.

In workplaces with hostile management, reps often get no paid time at all. In large public-sector organisations, some full-time released reps focus more on political activity than on representing members, making them hard to reach. The outcome is predictably poor representation.

Members who need real support often find there is none. This undermines trust and fuels cynicism among workers who see Trade Union “representation” as superficial.

The WEU’s reps are different — they are Trade Union-funded, politically independent, and always accessible by phone, text, email, or through our office.

Conclusion

When workers realise that “Trade Union representation” often means “your mate on a lunch break,” they lose faith. Reps themselves burn out, caught between management pressure and distant head offices.

This erosion of trust is one reason workers are rejecting politicised British Trade Unions. People join Trade Unions for protection, not the funding of a political party.

The WEU offers professional representation funded directly by members’ subscriptions — not by employers.

Employer-paid representation is a contradiction in terms. A Trade Union cannot be funded by the employer and still fight effectively for the worker.

If British Trade Unions want to rebuild credibility and trust, they must start by paying and supporting their own representatives. That means investing in trained, independent advocates who answer only to their members and not to management.

Until that happens, these British Trade Unions will keep fighting with one hand tied behind their back, leaving members short-changed.

The Workers of England Union stands apart. We have never accepted employer-paid representation, and our members see the difference: independent, professional, and accountable support that always puts workers first.