Ahead of the Janus ruling, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature modified long-standing state laws to benefit the unions themselves.
As explained in the previous section, the employer is now charged with enforcing the membership agreement. If a signed card is not possessed, however, it is impossible for the employer to follow the law.
The public employer also should be aware of the following new statutory requirement to provide information to the union about newly hired, promoted or transferred employees and to provide a union representative the opportunity to consult with such employees.
The state Legislature amended CSL §208.1(b)[1] to: (1) ensure unions prompt payment of union dues when unions submit dues deduction authorization cards for new members; (2) require public employers to accept dues deduction authorizations in additional formats (e.g. electronic records and signatures); (3) provide that the dues deduction authorization will remain in effect until revoked by the employee in accordance with the terms stated in the authorization: and (4) that the dues deduction will automatically be restored if an employee leaves the employ of the public employer but returns to the public employer within one year in a position represented by the same union.
The public employer should:
- Inform its personnel director of the requirement to provide information to the union about newly promoted, transferred or hired employees.
- Develop a standardized form information letter so that the responsible employee need only fill in the blanks.
- Add a step to processing personnel change forms that requires the notice to the union in the event of promotions, transfers and new hires.
- Designate a representative for the union to contact to schedule meetings with new hires or transferred or promoted employees and inform that representative of the requirements in paragraph (b) above.
- Adopt a procedure that:
- designates the person within the organization to receive and review dues deduction authorization cards; and
- informs each of your unions of the name a title of such person.
- requires a date and time stamp receipt of authorizations and calendar an action item for two weeks to check if deductions have commenced;
- requires a prompt review of authorizations, recognizing that electronic records and signatures are permissible and that authorizations may not be rejected for minor issues; and
- requires the person responsible for your payroll be informed as soon as authorizations are approved so that deductions can be made within the statutorily required 30 days from receipt. If you have bi-weekly payroll, your time to comply is effectively reduced.
[1] Civil Service Law §208:
4. (a) Within thirty days of a public employee first being employed or reemployed by a public employer, or within thirty days of being promoted or transferred to a new bargaining unit, the public employer shall notify the employee organization, if any, that represents that bargaining unit of the employee’s name, address, job title, employing agency, department or other operating unit, and work location; and
(b) Within thirty days of providing the notice in paragraph a of this subdivision, a public employer shall allow a duly appointed representative of the employee organization that represents that bargaining unit to meet with such employee for a reasonable amount of time during his or her work time without charge to leave credits, unless otherwise specified within an agreement bargained collectively under article fourteen of the civil service law, provided however that arrangements for such meeting must be scheduled in consultation with a designated representative of the public employer.