U-turn on plan to abolish ‘check-off’ system follows threatened rebellion in Lords and will be seen as major victory for unions

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The government is to drop a controversial proposal to change trade union funding arrangements after a threatened rebellion in the House of Lords.

Under plans included in the trade union bill all civil servants and staff in the wider public sector who belong to a union would have had to switch to direct debits or make other arrangements to pay their fees.

But a cabinet office minister admitted the government had failed to convince Tory peers to vote for the proposal and said it would be dropped from the bill.

The decision will be seen as a major victory for public sector unions which had claimed the proposal was a vindictive attack on their finances.

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Critics had warned that a switch to direct debit payments would see members leave trade unions and no longer be able to access services they provided such as help with cheap loans, debt advice and legal aid.



In the report stage debate in the Lords,the cabinet office minister Lord Bridges acknowledged many Tory peers opposed the measure.

“I fear that my trying to convince you of our case may simply add grist to the mill of those who see this measure as a means of undermining trade unions themselves. This is certainly not and never has been the government’s intention,” he said.

Bridges said the government would instead support an amendment that would allow the “check-off” system, whereby members have their subscription deducted from their salaries, to continue where there was agreement with the employer and the union met the cost.

The decision comes too late for many civil servants in local and central government, whose system was dismantled before the bill was brought forward.

Speaking outside the chamber, the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said: “Banning workers from choosing to pay subs in a convenient way through their payroll would, as many have warned, have damaged industrial relations and morale in key services.”

The Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “Banning unions from using the check-off system to collect membership fees from employees in the public sector was among the most mean-spirited of [the bill’s] proposals.

“But thanks to a good deal of union campaigning behind the scenes, Unison and the TUC have built an effective coalition.”

The remaining bill will still mean unions require a 50% turnout threshold for industrial action ballots, a 40% threshold of eligible workers for any form of industrial action in “important” public services including education and border security, and new rules on picketing.

Len McCluskey, the leader of Britain’s biggest union, Unite, said the remaining bill would continue to undermine workers’ rights. “We would urge the government not to stop here but to think again on the entire trade union bill for it will set back industrial relations in this country by decades.”

