June 28, 2018

As expected, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling this week in one of the most anticipated cases of the Court’s term—Janus v. AFSCME. The Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that public employees cannot be required to pay fees, sometimes called “fair share” or “agency” fees, that cover a labor organization’s costs to negotiate a contract that applies to all public employees.

The Court’s opinion specifically found that an employee must affirmatively ask for such fees to be paid.  In other words, an employee must opt-in to paying union dues or agency fees, rather than requiring the employee to opt out.  The result of yesterday’s decision is that public employees who choose not to join a union don’t have to pay anything to the union even if they are covered by a union-negotiated contract. Organized labor fears the ruling will mean both a loss of revenue and fewer members.

On the same day the decision was issued, the Governor signed SB 866, which includes provisions on canceling or changing payroll deductions and new requirements related to communication with employees about the union.  Because SB 866 is a budget trailer bill, it became effective yesterday upon the Governor’s signature.  CSAC encourages counties to work closely with their County Counsels on how to properly implement the Janus decision and the new requirements in SB 866.