Union wins High Court battle with Pickles over collecting union subscriptions

A High Court judge has ruled that the Communities Secretary acted unlawfully when he ended the ‘check off’ system for collecting union subscriptions through salaries.

According to the Public and Commercial Services Union, which brought the legal action, the DCLG has been ordered to pay legal costs that could amount to £90,000.

The union claimed that the check-off system only cost the DCLG £300 a year to administer. It also said that Eric Pickles had previously advised local authorities to end check off but was the first cabinet minister to attempt to apply it in the civil service.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Pickles has very serious questions to answer about why he decided to spend tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money fighting to scrap something that costs less than £30 a month."

A DCLG spokesman said: "This is a ruling on a technical point of employment law. We have already saved taxpayers’ money by abolishing full-time trade union representatives and cutting back ‘facility time’ to private sector levels. It remains ministers’ intention to abolish check-off, which ministers believe is an outdated and unnecessary practice given to trades unions."