SE Houston News

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court having overturned a prior labor law decision that allowed the deduction of fees from public employee payroll for membership dues it did not authorize, the state of Texas is collecting public-sector union dues. 

As a result, Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-128) sent a letter Jan. 27, inquiring about the practice and Attorney General Ken Paxton responded with a letter of his own on May 31, defending the withdrawals.

“In Texas the legislature permits employees of state agencies to authorize payroll deductions for payment of membership fees or dues for unions and other eligible state employee organizations,” Paxton wrote in the letter. “An employee authorizes a payroll deduction by completing an authorization form and submitting the form to the organization to which the membership fee will be paid. The authorization form is created by the organization and must be approved by the comptroller.”

However, in his letter to Paxton, Briscoe points out that Texas does not provide its employees with any notice of their rights and instead outsources the responsibility to public sector unions, which are not incentivized financially to crystalize the nature and scope their rights.

Paxton’s letter states, “Under the current administrative procedure authorizing deductions at the state level, state agencies rely on the unions and employee organizations to obtain consent from employees. The organizations serve as a middleman, receiving authorizations from employees and forwarding them to the state agencies, which make the requested payroll deductions.”

But this practice is not in alignment with the Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, Cain alleges.

“This has been a longstanding practice of the government and other political subdivisions to serve as the dues collector for unions and other organizations,” Cain told the SE Houston News. “However, I believe it is not the role of the government to serve as the dues collector for unions. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME left a few questions that needed to be addressed.”

Janus was decided by a 5-4 vote that the state’s collection of agency fees from nonconsenting public employees was a violation of the First Amendment and that a prior decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education was incorrect, explaining that forcing workers to support ideas they disagreed with runs counter to First Amendment principles.

Cain asked Paxton to address the requirement that Texas and political subdivisions provide employees a notice of their First Amendment right to opt-out of dues-paying membership as well as the template language to do so, a consent renewal period of one year and to allow employees to make informed decisions about their participation in a union. 

“The Janus ruling means that unions can not compel employees to pay dues under the First Amendment,” said Cain. “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s decision empowers employees to do just that. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Texas Legislature, and other elected officials, during the interim and during the 87th Texas Legislature to ensure the Janus decision applies.”