CHAPTER 199
FORMERLY
HOUSE BILL NO. 24
AS AMENDED BY HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 1
AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14, DELAWARE CODE, CHAPTER 40 RELATING TO FAIR SHARE FEES AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ACT.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:
Section 1. Amend Title 14, Delaware Code, Chapter 40, §4002 by adding new subsections to read as follows:
"(s) 'Fair Share Fee' means a fee that a nonmember shall be required to pay to the exclusive representative to offset his or her per capita share of the exclusive representative's expenditures. Such fee shall be equal in amount to regular membership dues that a member of the exclusive representative is required to pay, including payments to the exclusive representative's affiliated organizations, or such lesser amount as is prescribed by the exclusive representative in compliance with the procedures contained herein.
(t) 'Nonmember' means an employee of a public school employer who is not a member of the exclusive representative, but who is represented in a collective bargaining unit by the exclusive representative for purposes of collective bargaining."
Section 3. Amend Title 14, Delaware Code, Chapter 40 by adding a new §4019 which shall read as follows:
"§4019. Fair Share Fees.
(a) If the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement so provide, each nonmember of a bargaining unit shall be required to pay the exclusive representative a fair share fee.
(b) To implement fair share fee agreements in accordance with subsection (a), the exclusive representative shall provide the public school employer with the name of each nonmember who is obligated to pay a fair share fee, the amount of the fee that he or she is obligated to pay, and a reasonable and lawful schedule for deducting said amount from the salary or wages of such nonmember. The public school employer shall deduct the fee in accordance with said schedule and promptly transmit the amount deducted to the exclusive representative.
(a) As a precondition to the collection of fair share fees, the exclusive representative shall establish and maintain a procedure that (I) provides nonmembers with an adequate explanation of the basis for the fee, (ii) provides nonmembers with a reasonably prompt opportunity to challenge the amount of the fee before an impartial decision maker, and (iii) provides an escrow for the amounts reasonably in dispute while such challenges are pending. A public school employer shall not refuse to carry out Its obligations under subsection (b)
on
the grounds that the exclusive representative has not satisfied its responsibilities under this subsection.
(a) Since fair share fees are collected each school year, in order to avoid undue delays in the receipt of, and determination of the validity of, fair share fees, any suit challenging a fair share fee must be filed within six months after receipt of the notice described in subsection (c), or within six months after the nonmember exhausts the procedure described in subsection (c), whichever is later."
Section 4. If any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall, for any reason, be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of this act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph or part thereof, directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered and to the person or circumstances involved. It is hereby declared to be the legislative intent that this act would have been adopted had such invalid provisions not been included.
Approved March 31, 1994.