Protections from the Janus Decision
The budget agreement addresses and codifies several important issues to protect a public employee’s right to join a union and union member rights in the public sector once they have joined a union.
· Requires public employers to provide the names, locations and contact numbers of all new hires and rehires to the employee organization within 30 days of employment.
· Requires public employers to provide time during work hours within 30 days of the above notification for the employee organization to meet with all new hires, without loss of employee leave time.
· Codifies that individuals may sign dues authorization cards via means allowed by state technology law, allowing emails and other electronic means to be accepted.
· Requires employers to begin dues deduction within 30 days of receiving a member’s dues authorization card and requires remittance of the dues to the union within 30 days of making the deduction.
· Codifies that members that have left service and return within a one-year period will automatically have their membership reinstated and a member who is placed on voluntary or involuntary leave will automatically have membership reinstated upon return to the payroll.
· Codifies that the withdraw process from the union may be determined by the dues authorization card.
· Codifies that the union is allowed to offer benefits and services that are above and beyond a negotiated agreement to its members only. To protect due paying members from free-riders the language codifies that the union’s obligation to represent non-members is limited to the negotiation and enforcement of the contract and the union is not required to represent non-members in various disciplinary processes when the non-member is authorized to get their own representation.