20 April 2016

The check-off process of deducting trade union subscriptions from the wages of public sector members will not be scrapped in the Trade Union Bill as first proposed.

The government made the u-turn after it became clear it did not have support in the Lords for its proposal to ban check-off, even among Tory peers.

At Committee Stage last month, Lord Forsyth, who describes himself as a “strong Thatcherite” said: “On both check-off and the question of opting in and out of the political levy, I believe the Government are going far too far.”

In Report Stage this week, Cabinet Office Minister Lord Bridges said the government would accept an amendment to the Trade Union Bill that check-off could continue where there is an agreement between the employer and trade union to organise trade union subscriptions in this way.

The government’s reversal is welcome news for public sector unions, but the Bill continues to threaten industrial relations in the UK, with proposals to set turnout thresholds on ballots at 50%, with an additional 40% threshold of all workers eligible to vote in “important” public sector organisations.

Union leaders spoke out to push the government to go further in its reconsideration of the Bill, with Len McCluskey of Unite stating: “Small wonder that union members – millions of ordinary working people – feel needlessly under attack by this government.

“We still have a bill that will make it harder for UK workers to defend themselves, that undermines the right to strike and establishes an aggressive regulator for a movement that is already the most tightly monitored in the western world.”

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