@glitzersachen @doctormo Ah, so that sounds like the same thing. The "paid to do HR's job" was a comment from management observing that if the union reps weren't there then they'd have to hire another HR person.

(For a while I chaired the committee of councillors which in theory oversaw the management - staff relationships, and whose job was to decide any issues that management and unions couldn't agree on between themselves. In practice our meetings consisted of management and unions telling us that they were getting on absolutely fine together, and they were sure they could sort out the current disagreements using their existing working relationships and policies and procedures, and the last thing they needed was us councillors interfering. So basically we were a last-resort backstop insurance policy that was never called upon to pay out.)