Labour Research March 2013

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Law Queries

Collection of union subs

Q. For years our employer has collected union subs via check-off. In other words, the monthly dues of members at our workplace are taken out direct from members’ wages and transferred on to the union. However, recently, a few of the members have opted not to pay the political levy. They therefore should be paying a slightly lower sub. They asked the employer to amend the amount that it collects accordingly. In response, the employer says that it is no longer going to collect anyone’s subs and that everyone will have to pay via direct debit. Can it do this?

A. No. You will need to check whether the members have notified the employer in writing that they are exempt from paying the political levy (just sending on their exemption notice to the union is sufficient).

Once they have provided this to the employer, it must stop making the full deduction as soon as is reasonably practicable.

Under section 86 Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 (TULRCA), the employer cannot refuse to operate check-off on the basis that it has received an exemption certificate.

If the employer were foolish enough to follow through with its threats, the burden of proving why it acted would be on it. In particular, under section 87(3) TULRCA the employer would be obliged to show what possible other reason there was for its action.


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