Employer’s Union Dues Checkoff Duty Outlasts Contract

An employer’s duty to abide by a union dues checkoff provision in which it deducts dues from employees’ paychecks and remits them to the union survives expiration of the relevant collective bargaining agreement, a divided National Labor Relations Board ruled Aug. 27 (Lincoln Lutheran of Racine, 2015 BL 277213, 362 N.L.R.B. No. 188, 8/27/15).

In a 3-2 decision, the board overruled Bethlehem Steel, 136 NLRB 1500, 50 LRRM 1013 (1962), which said an employer’s union dues checkoff obligation expires along with the union contract. Instead, the NLRB majority said no good reason exists for treating ...