Injunction halting new withholding statute produces unintended consequences

An ongoing lawsuit between West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and several unions over a change to a state wage law that would bar most public agencies from withholding union dues from employee paychecks has generated a lot of headlines. But a broad injunction that has prevented the new law from taking effect also has stalled unrelated and unheralded provisions of the measure that would benefit both public and private employers.

How we got here

The West Virginia Legislature passed the so-called Paycheck Protection Act (PPA) on March 19, 2021. The new state law is wholly unrelated to the similarly named federal “Paycheck Protection Program,” which provided loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PPA would block state and county agencies and some municipalities from deducting “union, labor organization, or club dues or fees” from employee paychecks. The prohibition would apply to both sides of the employer-employee relationship:

• Employers couldn’t deduct union fees or club dues; and
• Most public employees couldn’t voluntarily assign wages to labor organizations or clubs to be paid by pay deductions.

The legislature didn’t define what constitutes a “club” under the Act. Presumably the statute would prevent public employers from withholding pay from employees to cover, for instance, service club membership dues, gym membership fees, athletic club dues, and the like. Private employers would have no such restrictions.

Unions argue for injunction