THE Government will stop taxpayer money being used to fund trade union staff, Prime Minister David Cameron announced.
He said it was time to end a practice which in the last financial year saw taxpayers fund the trade unions to the tune of £113m through paid staff time.
The bill in Kirklees was just short of £300,000 a year.
Kirklees paid out £275,938 last year to cover the wages of nine full-time union officials. Each is employed for the council but devotes working time to union activity.
The payout means the authority has the ninth highest bill in the country out of more than 300 councils who have similar deals.
Tories tried to end the practice with a motion to Kirklees Council in September but it was defeated.
Mr Cameron, inset, said: “I think the idea of full-time trade unionists working in the public sector on trade union business, rather than serving the public, I don’t think that is right and we are going to put that to an end.
“I think that is absolutely the case and the evidence of today’s strike makes that even stronger.”
But Howard Roberts from the Kirklees branch of the National Union of Teachers condemned the move last night.
“This is a nonsensical travesty,” he said.
“We help organisations run smoothly and stop disputes developing.
“Organising strikes is about 1% of what we do in a year. We spend about 50% of our time working with teachers who have ill health, often caused by stress.”
