Workplace Report April 2017

Recruitment and organisation news

Check-off pilot 


Public services union UNISON has begun a pilot project to deal with the forthcoming legal changes to check-off (also known as “DOCAS”), where employers deduct union subs directly from wages. From 10 March 2018, new agreements for this must be in place to ensure the union is paying the employer a “reasonable fee” for this.


While most UNISON members are employed by around 300 large employers, its main concern is over the third or so who are scattered among some 7,500 workplaces, many with fewer than 10 members each. The pilot will cover such members in Kent.


The project will run from 24 April to 21 July and, the union says, will provide it with “vital information about how to handle member subscriptions in small workplaces like this”. A fuller switch programme could then be rolled out from autumn 2017 to March 2018.

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2017/03/docas-facility-time