From check‐off to direct debit? Trade union subscriptions in UK universities

Examines trade union subscriptions in relation to the 1993 Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act focusing on the Association of University Teachers, where the relationship is examined between subscription payments and hypothesized factors relating to staff, union and institutional characteristics. Finds significant indicators include staff grade, age, gender, the number of part‐time staff, a substitution effect in relation to check‐off together with a quadratic association for union density. Given this series of findings the continued dominance of check‐off as the favoured method of subscription payment, within the confines of this study, appears to be problematic.