Scottish councils have spent almost £14 million over the last five years paying for staff to work for trade unions.
In data gathered by the Scottish Conservatives, Fife was found to be far and away the biggest spender, shelling out £2.6 million since 2007 on supporting the equivalent of 18 full-time workers in that period.
Fife Council outstripped the cost of Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which spent £2.2 million and £1.4 million respectively.
Across Courier Country, Perth and Kinross Council shelled out £116,000, Angus Council was still preparing a response to the total outlay made on staff working on union time over the last five years and Dundee City Council did not spent a penny on staff working on union time.
Collected through a freedom of information request, the statistics show that while some public sector employees were only working part-time on union business, scores more had full-time roles earning up to £27,000 a year paid for by the public purse.
Local authorities are paying full-time wages to those workers who spend 100% of their time on trade union work, with nearly 100 full-time equivalents working with the unions last year, the party said.
Last year alone, almost £3 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on what the Tories dubbed ”so called time-facility arrangements”, which are agreed between councils and unions to provide their representatives with time to carry out union duties.
Some councils either refused or were unable to respond to the FOI request, meaning the true cost is likely to be higher.
Scottish Conservative local government spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: ”In tough economic times many hardworking Scottish taxpayers will be wondering why their councils have spent so much money giving employees time off to work on trade union business while still paying them a full salary.
”Paying someone for the work they do is one thing, but paying them for work they don’t do is not something our public sector can afford to sustain.
”At a time when people are feeling the squeeze and cuts are being made, local authorities in turn should be looking at how this money could best be spent, including using it to better fund schools, local services, or other issues voters care about.
”Furthermore, the fact that some councils could not even estimate how much time was spent on trade union business, or how much the burden of having staff do this costs, is unacceptable.
”Councils in Scotland must review their time-facility arrangements and question whether it is appropriate for taxpayers’ money to be prioritised in this way.”
Fife Council HR manager Linda Frew said: ”As a council we invest in our employees and therefore, in turn, we feel it’s important to invest in our employee representatives.
”Over the past few years many changes have affected our employees, and with the continuing modernising agenda facing local government, it’s vital that there is an ongoing contribution from trade unions.”
Perth and Kinross Council deputy chief executive David Burke said: ”Perth and Kinross Council considers carefully what resources are necessary to allow the council to fulfil its obligations to all staff, and trade union officials have an important part to play in this.”
Angus Council confirmed it responded to the request for information on how many council workers were working on a full time basis for trade unions.
A spokeswoman said the local authority had no employees working on a full-time basis for trade unions last year.