––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://www.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
- Posted February 03, 2014
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Michigan Supreme Court will look at right-to-work law, pension contributions
LANSING (AP) -- The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to take two cases that affect thousands of state workers and divide labor unions and Republicans who control the Capitol.
The court will decide whether state employees are covered by a so-called right-to-work law that makes financial support for unions voluntary. The other case involves employee contributions to pensions. Both likely will define the constitutional powers of the state Civil Service Commission, which has clashed with the Legislature over policies for the government workforce.
In brief orders released last Thursday, the Supreme Court said it would take two cases that were handled last summer by the state appeals court. In one, the appeals court said the right-to-work law allows state employees to drop their support for unions. In the other, the court said a law requiring 4 percent payments in exchange for a full pension was unconstitutional.
The cases were decided by separate three-judge panels.
The right-to-work law prohibits forcing public and private workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. It was quickly passed in December 2012, and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, over the shouts of thousands of protesters.
Unions have argued that state workers aren't covered because only the Civil Service Commission can set employment rules under the Michigan Constitution. But the appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, said lawmakers have authority to pass laws covering all employment in the state.
The four-member commission still is dominated by appointees of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.
In the pension case, Republican lawmakers in 2011 passed a law that required about 18,000 workers hired before April 1997 to contribute toward a full pension or freeze the pension benefit and move to a 401(k). Virtually all have been making the contribution, but the appeals court said only the Civil Service Commission can change compensation, including pensions.
Published: Mon, Feb 3, 2014
headlines Oakland County
- Leading role: Firm’s new CEO ‘humbled by trust placed in me’
- Oakland County teams with United Way for Southeastern Michigan to launch water affordability program
- Dept. raises awareness about the need for loving homes during Foster Care Month
- Disbarred attorney sentenced for stealing from elderly client of law firm
- Murder trial opens in death of Detroit-area teen whose disappearance led to grueling landfill search
headlines National
- Civil legal aid lawyers are often the last line of defense. Why are there so few of them?
- Bankruptcy law firm files for Chapter 11 after losing advertising dispute
- Dentons and Boies Schiller face $300M racketeering suit after client loses international arbitration
- Mother’s Day and the changing face of family dynamics and custody arrangements
- Federal judge reprimanded for handcuffing teen spectator in scared-straight approach
- Lawyer whose firm sued Boeing finds emergency slide that fell from company’s plane near his home