PCS challenge end to check-off

The PCS civil service union is taking communities secretary Eric Pickles to the High Court this month over his scrapping of “check-off” for collecting union dues in his department.

In July, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced it was to end the decades-old practice of collecting union members’ subscriptions from their salaries on behalf of its three unions.

The PCS argued that the DCLG move would constitute a breach of employees’ contracts, and gave Pickles a deadline of 31 July to abandon the plan or face legal action. Pickles declined, and the union last month won a full High Court hearing, which will take place on 3 September.

The union says the practice of check-off costs the DCLG just £9.40 a month to administer for each of the three unions represented — a total of £28.20 a month.

Pickles has hired “top lawyer” James Eadie to challenge the union, according to the Daily Express newspaper.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: “It is simply staggering that Eric Pickles appears happy to waste thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money fighting a case to save less than £30 a month.”

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/pickles-court-case-take-action-to-defend-your-union