TENS of thousands more workers have joined a trade union in the past year, official figures revealed yesterday.

Annual membership figures collated by the Office for National Statistics show an increase of 36,000 (0.6 per cent) between 2014 and 2015.

That included a fifth consecutive increase in trade union membership in the private sector, where there are now almost 2.7 million members — an increase of 6,000 since 2014.