HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A group of Pennsylvania state employees has filed a lawsuit against AFSCME Council 13, the government union that represents thousands of state employees in Pennsylvania.
Seven current and former state employees filed the federal class-action lawsuit, looking to recoup “fair share” fees taken out of their paychecks and sent to the union.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that those fees are not constitutional.
The workers are seeking a refund of the non-member fees paid to AFSCME between November 2017 and June 2018.
Employees in the lawsuit paid an average of $600 a year. If the suit rules in their favor, $3 million could be paid out to 10,000 state employees.
“For years, AFSCME violated the U.S. Constitution by taking money from public workers who weren’t union members. Now that the Supreme Court has vindicated government employees and ruled that mandatory union fees are illegal, public-sector employees in Pennsylvania deserve to have their hard-earned money returned to them,” said Patrick Hughes, the president and co-founder of the Liberty Justice Center.
AFSCME Council 13 did not respond to requests for comment.