Employers may not unilaterally stop deducting union dues from employees’ paychecks after a labor contract expires, the National Labor Relations Board said in a decision issued Monday.
The “dues checkoff” decision came in Valley Hospital Medical Center, Inc., on remand from US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
“Prior boards have never cogently explained why dues checkoff should not be part of the status quo that employers must maintain when a contract expires, and courts have struggled with this inconsistency in board law,” Chairman Lauren McFerran said in a statement. “Today, the board definitively resolves this issue by confirming that it is a violation of the [National Labor Relations] Act to unilaterally stop dues checkoff when a contract expires.”
McFerran was joined in the decision by board members Gwynne Wilcox and David Prouty. Members John Ring and Marvin Kaplan dissented.
NLRB decisions on the issue have varied over the past 60 years.
According to the board, the body’s initial decision on this issue, in Bethlehem Steel in 1962, held that an employer was free to end dues checkoff upon union contract expiration. The 9th Circuit, however, later criticized the board for not adequately explaining its approach.
Then, in Lincoln Lutheran in 2015, the board held that dues checkoff was subject to the general statutory rule requiring employers to maintain most terms and conditions of employment after contract expiration to facilitate bargaining for a new agreement.
In Valley Hospital I in 2019, the prior board majority reversed Lincoln Lutheran, again permitting employers to stop withholding union dues from paychecks when a contract expires. On review, however, the 9th Circuit found the board’s rationale for its decision to be insufficient.
Monday’s decision reverses Valley Hospital I and returns to the rule of Lincoln Lutheran, that an employer, after contract expiration, must continue to honor the dues-checkoff arrangement established in the contract until either the parties have reached a successor collective-bargaining agreement or a valid overall bargaining impasse permits unilateral action by the employer.
