FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon broke ranks with her party today to criticise an SNP council for cutting trade union facility time.

West Dunbartonshire council has announced it will cut the number of paid hours for union reps from the equivalent of 3.4 full-time employees to just two.

The decision has provoked a furious reaction from local trade unions, including Unite, the GMB, Unison and the Education Institute of Scotland.

This weekend the GMB will stage an “Easter hunt” for the increasingly isolated council leader Jonathan McColl, who it said had been “posted missing” from his surgeries since imposing the cuts.

At First Minister’s Questions today, Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said the SNP-led authority’s decision did not sit well with Ms Sturgeon’s recent pledge to support unions.

In a joint statement issued with the STUC earlier this month, the Scottish government stressed that “workers need an effective voice through a union.”

In response to Ms Baillie’s question, the First Minister said it was “for local councils to take decisions as they see appropriate.” But she said that she had “made clear ... her support for facility time” and added: “I would consider cutting facility time a false economy.”

Clydebank TUC secretary Thomas Morrison said Ms Sturgeon’s intervention “exposes the splits that are opening up” in the SNP.

“A public statement like that is a complete rejection of the strategy the council are pursuing,” he said.

West Dunbartonshire Unison convener Val Jennings said cutting facility time would lead to meetings being delayed and a backlog of casework.

She also said that work might have to be allocated to union reps on higher pay grades — meaning that the council would end up with a larger wage bill.

“West Dunbartonshire’s SNP-led council are blatantly going against the SNP’s values and campaigns,” she told the Star.

“I would call for action from the SNP, because a lot of people [in West Dunbartonshire] are saying they’re members of the SNP, and saying they’re ashamed.”

She said this included trade union members working for the council.

GMB organiser Hazel Nolan said the public were invited to join union reps in the hunt for Mr McColl from 2pm at Loch Lomond Shores, Balloch, on Easter Saturday.

“The efforts of the trade unions in securing discussions with the council leader have been stonewalled,” she said.

“[Mr McColl] has cancelled his scheduled surgery once again - it’s like a big boy did it and ran away.”

The council told the Star: "Facility time will continue to be protected for our trade union representatives in line with our facility agreement."