Court says public-sector unions can’t force employees to pay dues

A public-sector union may not deny a worker’s request to stop paying union dues, according to a recent ruling from the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in New Jersey. To do so is a violation of the employee’s rights under the first amendment, the court determined.

New Jersey is one of two dozen states without a right-to-work law, which prevents employees from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, the Society for Human Resources Management noted. Right-to-work laws generally apply to both private and public sector employees.

The New Jersey case dates back to 2018 when a nurse at a county-run facility requested to resign from her union and, therefore, stop paying union dues. A state law required such requests to be made within a 10-day period each year. The nurse missed that window, and the union denied the request. The next time the 10-day period rolled around, the nurse refiled her request, and the union approved it.

Within a week of submitting the second request, according to court records, the nurse filed a lawsuit against the county claiming that “delaying her ability to stop paying union dues violated her First Amendment rights by compelling her to subsidize union speech.” 

In March 2020, the union sent the nurse a check to refund the dues, plus interest. Since she received the refund, in June 2021, the district court ruled that the nurse no longer was a union member and therefore lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. The case was dismissed.

Nevertheless, the nurse appealed her case on the grounds that “the check she received after her resignation from the union did not moot her damages claims against the union,” according to court records. 

The appeals court agreed, in part. Although it said that the nurse was within her rights to sue the public-sector union, she lacked standing after the dues were refunded to her.

“We will affirm the District Court’s orders in part, vacate them in part, and remand the damages claim against the union to the District Court for resolution,” Judge Peter J. Phipps wrote.