SCOTTISH TUC branded a new clause of the Tories’ vicious Trade Union Bill tabled yesterday as a “nakedly discriminatory action” against public-sector trade unions.

The clause will ban public-sector employers from offering check-off arrangements to staff, a system whereby trade union members have their union dues deducted directly from the payroll rather than collected separately.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said that the measures meant it “could not be clearer” that the Tories are seeking to “make it harder for employees to maintain union membership and to wrap up unions in red tape to divert our reps from their core task of looking after members.”