Unions have received more than £5mn from taxpayers via the Assembly Government, Welsh Conservatives have said today.
Millions of pounds worth of public money has been channelled into the Wales Union Learning Fund, which was set up in 1999 to provide training for union members, Shadow Local Government Minister Darren Millar AM has learned.
Since 2001 £5,075,855 has been already spent. In the current financial year alone £1.3mn is being spent, with £1.5mn earmarked for 2010-11.
The fund was established to “maximise the contribution of Trade Unions to the achievement of the Welsh Assembly Government’s workforce development objectives”.
Clwyd West AM Darren Millar today demanded greater transparency in links between the unions and the Assembly Government.
He said:
“While I fully support efforts to ensure we have a skilled workforce in Wales I am concerned at the amount of taxpayers’ money being channelled into this union fund.
“We need full transparency on what more than £5mn in public money has been used for and what the Labour Party got in return.
“We need to know whether training provided by this fund is open only to union members, or whether non-unionised employees can also take advantage of it.
“We need to know on what criteria the money is allocated, how much, and to which unions.
“And we need to know the sort of training which has been provided and what it has achieved.
“With the unions bankrolling the Labour Party the Labour-led Assembly Government needs to put the national interest before union interests. Failure to do so will put the recovery at risk and hold Wales back.”
