Bosses get say in union grants

Business people have won a battle to be involved in deciding how money provided by the government for union modernisation will be spent.

Under the forthcoming Union Modernisation Fund, the Department of Trade and Industry will give unions grants of up to £200,000 for developments such as improving officials' understanding of business and improving communications and information technology (see Labour Research March 2004).

The DTI has now proposed that business people will have a presence on the fund's supervisory board, which will make recommendations on each bid.