{"id":5130,"date":"2015-08-06T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5130"},"modified":"2015-08-06T17:05:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T16:05:11","slug":"come-clean-ministers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5130","title":{"rendered":"Come clean, ministers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Ministers should come clean about how stopping public sector union members paying their membership dues though the long-standing payroll \u00e2\u20ac\u0098check off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 system will achieve a saving of \u00c2\u01416.5m to the public purse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite, which has 250,000 members in the public sector, including the NHS, has written to cabinet office minister Matthew Hancock and minister for trade and investment Lord Maude asking for an urgent explanation as to how the cost estimation has been arrived at.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In her letter, Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail asked how the \u00c2\u01416.5m figure squared with the advice of former coalition chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander, who in a letter to Whitehall departments in July 2014, advised that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthere was no fiscal case\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 for terminating the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098check off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a great shame that government decided to announce this decision and bypass unions, which is a discourtesy I would not have expected from your office,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members in the public sector will be concerned to understand why, after five years of pay constraint and the additional loss of income that the tax credit changes will cause them and their families and why your government is singling them out once more for harsh treatment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYour full explanation of your cost estimation is therefore urgently sought,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail told Matthew Hancock and Lord Maude. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt would be helpful to know how this figure of \u00c2\u01416.5m was arrived at.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Gail Cartmail asked a series of probing questions of the two ministers, including:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>has the calculation taken into account employer charges paid by unions that vary from one to five per cent?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>does government believe the cost of deductions is consistent across all payroll systems and, if so, what is the cost per employee; if inconsistent what is the range of variation?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>is the saving claimed annual or representative of the lifetime of this government?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCrucially, if we are able to show there is no cost as current payments to employers cover any incidental administration will employers have the flexibility to retain the existing system of payroll deduction?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she continued.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Conservatives have consistently advocated \u00e2\u20ac\u0098choice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 yet choose to close off choice and interfere in the relationship between hundreds of employers and their recognised trade unions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is bewildering why you persist in denigrating deductions via payroll for trade union contributions when other deductions seem to be efficiently made such as charitable donations,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI believe it is fair and proportionate that my request for details on how the financial justification was arrived at and look forward to your response.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers should come clean about how stopping public sector union members paying their membership dues though the long-standing payroll \u00e2\u20ac\u0098check off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 system will achieve a saving of \u00c2\u01416.5m to the public purse. &nbsp; Unite, which has 250,000 members in the public sector, including the NHS, has written to cabinet office minister Matthew Hancock and minister [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[362],"wps_subtitle":"Unite demands explanation on check off 'savings' sums","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5132,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5130\/revisions\/5132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}