On June 30, 2016, a new bill amending Ohio’s Collective Bargaining Act was introduced into the Ohio House, House Bill 583. While the bill will not be considered by the House until after the November election, the legislation does include some significant changes to current law, so it will be an important bill to watch.
One significant change to current law included in the bill is that it gives public employees the right to choose whether or not to join a Union, and if the employee does not want to join, the employee is not required to contribute what is known as a fair share fee. A fair share fee is what employees who choose not to join unions must pay, sometimes called an agency fee, which is usually 65% to 100% of the full union membership dues. These fees are meant to finance bargaining over working conditions that benefit both union and nonunion members. In March of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of these fair share fees in a 4-4 decision. Loss of fair share fees could serve as a major financial blow to public unions. Based on this legislation, though, employees who do not choose to join the union could still financially contribute to the union if the employee chose to do so.
The proposed legislation also makes it clear that unions have the ability to opt out of representing employees who do not choose to join the union. FHKA will monitor the progress of this Legislation.