Janus vs. State County and Municipal Employees Essay

For the purposes of this assignment the Supreme Court case Janus vs State County and Municipal Employees was chosen. It was argued relatively recently, between February 26^th, 2018, and June 27^th, 2018. The Supreme Court of the United States held 5-4 that an Illinois legislation compelling non-union members to pay agency fees to the union in order for the organization to engage in collective bargaining and associated activities is an unconstitutional coercion of speech in violation of the First Amendment.

Thus, the Court overturned its contentious 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, which affirmed a similar agency shop setup. The Illinois Public Labor Relations Act allows the public sector workers to form trade unions (2018). Individual employees are not required to join the union when they unionize, but the union becomes their sole permitted agent, and they must pay a percentage of the union dues – known as an agency fee. These matters relate directly to the fair legal representation of an employee’s individual interests that is mentioned in the assignment.

The case materials mention fair legal representation that a union is expected to provide to its members on several occasions. The fairness of the representation in question is ensured by the unions maintaining objective terms when grievances are being disputed. Both members and non-members of the unions, although protected, are prevented from intentionally or unintentionally misinterpreting the terms of their contracts and basing their grievances on these false claims. At the same time, the union observes that employee’s contract-based rights are enforced to their benefit and that appropriate legal action is taken when there are sufficiently strong claims to be made that this is not the case. Thus, the Janus vs State County and Municipal Employees case can serve as an illustrative example for the topic of fair legal representation depicted in the assignment.

Reference

Janus v. American Federation of State County, And Municipal Employees Council, 585 US, 2018.