In Valley Hospital Medical Center, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 139 (2019), the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) overturned yet another Obama-era decision, and reinstated decades-old Board precedent regarding dues-checkoff provisions.

Dues-checkoff provisions in collective bargaining agreements (“CBA”) allow employers to take deductions from employees’ paychecks to pay union dues.  In Bethlehem Steel, 136 NLRB 1500 (1962), the Board held that employers could unilaterally stop deducting dues at the expiration of the CBA.  In practice, this gave employers leverage during contract negotiations.  This was the law for over 50 years.

In 2015, however, the Board decided Lincoln Lutheran of Racine, 362 NLRB 1655 (2015), which overruled Bethlehem Steel and held that an employer had an obligation to continue dues checkoff after the expiration of the CBA.

In Valley Hospital, the Board overruled Lincoln Lutheran of Racine, and reverted back to the rule in Bethlehem Steel.  The majority found that dues checkoff provisions belong in the limited category of mandatory-bargaining subjects that are exclusively created by the contract and are enforceable only for the duration of the contract. Thus, the rule once again is that employers can unilaterally terminate dues-checkoff procedures after the CBA expires.