WA Governor Jay Inslee, Director of Financial Management Facing Class Actions Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Agency Fees

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Washington Governor Jay Inslee and director of the state’s Office of Financial Management David Schumacher are among the defendants in two proposed class action lawsuits filed over the imposition of “agency fees” that the plaintiffs in each suit allege violate proposed class members’ constitutional rights.

One lawsuit, filed by five public school teachers, alleges Inslee, Schumacher and the Washington Education Association (a teacher’s union) have overstepped the Constitution in forcing proposed class members to pay agency fees as a condition of their employment, “even though the representative plaintiffs do not belong to this union and do not wish to subsidize the union’s activities.” The named plaintiffs seek not only a refund from the state of all collected agency fees, but an injunction forbidding the defendants from taking money from non-union members without consent.

The second proposed class action—which, in addition to Inslee and Schumacher, names labor group American Federation of State Employees (WFSE) as a defendant—comes from three state employees who argue that the terms governing the collective bargaining agreement between the state and its workers allows for employees to “have the right to refrain from union activities,” with few exceptions.

According to the plaintiffs, the agency fees collected by the individual defendants and WFSE go toward the support of union activities that are “inherently political,” which gets to the center of the employees’ push-back.

“[The plaintiffs] are compelled to pay agency fees to WFSE, which frees up resources for WFSE to spend on political and ideological activities, which [the plaintiffs] oppose,” the lawsuit reads. “[The plaintiffs] object to paying agency fees to WFSE, and believe this compulsory obligation violates their constitutional rights. Absent statutory and contractual requirements compelling them to do so, they would pay no fees to the Union.”

The complaints for both lawsuits can be read below.