Tories accused of 'mean-spirited' attack on trade union funding

Labour has condemned government plans to remove the right of 3.8 million public sector workers to have trade union subscriptions automatically deducted from their pay cheques as “mean-spirited and ideological”.

In a move that will be condemned by trade union leaders as another assault on their rights, the government confirmed that the forthcoming trade union bill would force public sector workers to make their own arrangements to pay union subscriptions.

“The government should be focused on improving workers’ rights and avoiding dispute, not mean-spirited and ideological attack on the rights of ordinary trade union members in the workplace,” Jon Ashworth, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said. “Trade union members have the right to organise in the work place and this measure is wholly aimed at undermining that right.”

Matt Hancock, the Cabinet Office minister, heralded the end to “check-off” deductions as a key step in modernising the relationship with trade unions and saving on administrative fees.

But union leaders will say the change is another example of the government’s hostile approach to their movement after the publication of the trade union bill last month, which included plans to criminalise picketing and to raise the threshold in a strike ballot by requiring that at least 40% of those asked to vote support the strike in key public services.

Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary and Labour leadership hopeful, described the plans as an “ideologically driven attack on unions”. “Many employers and union members find the check-off system easy to use and convenient, so it makes little sense to end it now,” she said.

“This government has launched an assault on workers rights and is trying to weaken unions in our country. This will lead to employer being pitted against employees – and will lead to more industrial disputes. Labour must fight this and make the case loud and clear for the huge role unions play in standing up for workers and resolving industrial disputes.”

Under the proposals, it is claimed that administrative costs will be saved in the public sector as 3.8 million trade union members – 54% of the public sector workforce – are told to make their own arrangements to pay their union subscription, mainly by direct debit. Unions say this will lead to a loss in funds by making subscription payments more complicated.

Unison’s general secretary, Dave Prentis, described the proposals as the “latest malicious manoeuvre” to deny public sector workers a voice at work. “Anyone in a job in the public sector must wonder why the government dislikes them so much that it is set on a series of such spiteful attacks on them through their unions,” he said.

Paul Nowak, the assistant general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: “Instead of going out of their way to poison industrial relations, the government should work positively with workers and their representatives for the good of public services and the economy.

“If payroll payment for union membership was outdated, it would not be popular with so many of the UK’s biggest and most successful private companies.”

But Hancock said: “In the 21st-century era of direct debits and digital payments, public resources should not be used to support the collection of trade union subscriptions. It’s time to get rid of this outdated practice and modernise the relationship between trade unions and their members. By ending check-off we are bringing greater transparency to employees – making it easier for them to choose whether or not to pay subscriptions and which union to join.”

The Conservative party tried to end check-off in Whitehall departments in the last government, but this was blocked in part by the Liberal Democrats. Under a compromise the change could be introduced only with the agreement of the relevant cabinet minister and after consultation with their coalition couterpart. This gave the Lib Dems an absolute veto in the departments they controlled. The change was introduced in the Home Office, HMRC and the Ministry of Defence.

The government said employers would give adequate notice of the end to check-off to allow union members to make other arrangements.

The move is one of a series of measures the Tories are able to introduce after being freed from coalition government. In one of the biggest changes the business secretary, Sajid Javid, said unions would be obliged to ask their members every five years whether they wished to pay the political levy.

The Labour party, which benefits from a sizeable chunk of the annual £25m political fund raised by the levy, believes the Tories are embarking on an assault on their funding arrangements.