Author: Andy Mooney

Switch from ‘Check-off’ to Direct-Debit

Andy Mooney Branch

Prospect is urging members to pay their subscriptions by direct debit rather than check-off.

Check-off is where workers authorise the employer to deduct union subscriptions from their salary and pay it direct to the union. The government is about to prohibit check-off in the whole of the public sector.

See our short video below to find out more. You can make the switch from check-off to direct debit online (You will need to log-in to the main Prospect website, not this ATSS Branch site) or call our membership team on 01932 577007.

This is the result of an amendment to the trade union bill which states: “No relevant public sector employer may make trade union subscription deductions from wages payable to workers.”

The detail of how the ban is to be implemented will be set out in regulations, which are likely to come into force during 2016, but not take effect until early 2017.

Check off has already been removed from much of the civil service, but the bill extends this to the whole of the civil service and all other parts of the public sector. It will also apply to private sector organisations with ‘functions of a public nature’, so there is a risk that the scope will include staff in NATS. Prospect’s employment law update gives more information.

Marion Scovell, head of Prospect Legal, said: “Banning check off is a wholly unjustified attack on unions. The government has not produced any evidence that it is the costly burden they claim and we understand employer costs are minimal.”

Possible legal obstacles to NATS sale, says Prospect

Andy Mooney Branch

Public concerns could resurface over foreign control of British airspace, Prospect has warned, after the government signalled the possible sale of its share in air traffic control provider NATS.

Buried away on page 74 of Wednesday’s spending review document, the government revealed it would “explore the sale” of its 49% shareholding, as well as looking at options to bring private capital into Ordnance Survey, where Prospect also has members.

“We believe there may be legal obstacles to the sale and we are looking back at the measures taken in 2001 when NATS was part-privatised through the creation of the Public-Private Partnership,” said Steve Jary, the union’s national secretary representing NATS staff.

“If NATS stock comes to be openly traded, there will be nothing to stop a foreign buyer taking it over ­– most likely, a state-owned company or a sovereign wealth fund. This would put the UK in a uniquely vulnerable position. NATS is already the only ‘for profit’, privatised national air navigation service provider in the world.

“Competition in the market for air traffic control towers in the UK has already resulted in the impending transfer of responsibility for air traffic control at Gatwick from NATS to a subsidiary of German-government owned DFS. NATS can’t compete for German towers because the German government does not allow it.”

It is only three years since the government last considered selling its stake in NATS. The reasons it gave then for retaining control – the strategic importance of NATS to the UK and its role in the development of the Single European Sky project – still hold true.