article_snippet: PCS and Unite has been in financial difficulty following cuts to the civil service, as well as an end to a system where Government departments automatically deducted union dues from the payroll.
article_snippet: a Labour-affiliated union blames a Labour-affiliated union financial crisis on the downsizing of the civil service, now a fifth smaller than it was in 2010.
article_snippet: The end of the ‘check off system’, which saw union fees deducted automatically from salaries by many Government departments has also squeezed PCS and Unite.
article_snippet: In addition, Government has clamped down on so-called ‘facility time’, whereby union officials are paid by the taxpayer to work for a union.
article_snippet: The overall cost of such taxpayer-subsidised union officials has fallen by more than two-thirds, while the number of full-time union officials paid for by the public purse has fallen from over 200 to fewer than ten.