On 19 April 2016, the House of Lords debated the Trade Union Bill. The Government confirmed that having listened to criticisms of the plan to abolish check off in the public sector (deducting unions subscriptions from pay) it had decided in principle that checkoff should continue, but subject to certain conditions. On 25 April 2016, the Lords voted in favour of a Government amendment to Clause 14 which now provides that a relevant public sector employer may make deductions from its workers’ wages in respect of trade union subscriptions only if:

(a)    those workers have the option to pay their trade union subscriptions by other means; and,

(b)    arrangements have been made for the union to make reasonable payments to the employer in respect of the making of the deductions.

Payments are “reasonable” for the purposes of (b) if the employer is satisfied that the total amount of the payments is substantially equivalent to the total cost to public funds of making the deductions. The Bill now goes back to the House of Commons.

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