§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment is she will list the cases known to her Department of employers who deducted union subscriptions from the wages of their employees without their prior consent.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Department does not keep records on this matter. However, as the Green Paper "Industrial Relations in the 1990s" (Cm 1602) pointed out, at present the payment of union subscriptions through the check-off may become part of an employee's contract of employment simply by virtue of an agreement made between the union and the employer; and there have been allegations that some employees who are not union members have nonetheless had union subscriptions deducted from their pay by check-off.
My right hon. and learned Friend the previous Secretary of State announced in January of this year that legislation would be introduced to ensure that the deduction of union subscriptions from an employee's pay would be unlawful without the written authority of the employee.