2023 Vermont Statutes › Title 16 - Education › Chapter 57 - Labor Relations for Teachers and Administrators › § 1982. Rights

§ 1982. Rights
(a) Teachers shall have the right to or not to join, assist, or participate in any teachers’ organization of their choosing. However, teachers who choose not to join the teachers’ organization, recognized as the exclusive representative pursuant to section 1992 of this chapter, shall pay the agency fee in the same manner as teachers who choose to join the teachers’ organization pay membership fees. The teachers’ organization shall indemnify and hold the school board harmless from any and all claims stemming from the implementation or administration of the agency fee.
(b) Principals, assistant principals, and administrators other than superintendents and assistant superintendents shall have the right to or not to join, assist, or participate in any administrators’ organization or as a separate unit of any teachers’ organization of their choosing. However, subject to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section, administrators other than the superintendents and assistant superintendents who choose not to join the administrators’ organization, recognized as the exclusive representative pursuant to section 1992 of this chapter, shall pay the agency fee in the same manner as administrators who choose to join the administrators’ organization pay membership fees. The administrators’ organization agrees to indemnify and hold the school harmless from any and all claims stemming from the implementation or administration of the agency fee.
(c) The school board or any employee of the school board serving in any capacity or any other person or organization shall not interfere with, restrain, coerce, or discriminate in any way against or for any teacher or administrator engaged in activities protected by this legislation.
(d) A teachers’ or administrators’ organization shall not charge the agency fee unless it has established and maintained a procedure to provide nonmembers with:
(1) An audited financial statement that identifies the major categories of expenses and divides them into chargeable and nonchargeable expenses.
(2) An opportunity to object to the amount of the agency fee sought, and to place in escrow any amount reasonably in dispute.
(3) Prompt arbitration by an arbitrator selected jointly by the objecting fee payer and the teachers’ or administrators’ organization or pursuant to the rules of the American Arbitration Association to resolve any objection over the amount of the agency fee. The costs of arbitration shall be paid by the teachers’ or administrators’ organization.
(e) Nothing in this section shall require an employer to discharge an employee who does not pay the agency fee.
(f) A teacher or administrator who is a member of the teachers’ or administrators’ organization shall have the right to automatic membership dues deductions. Upon receipt of a signed authorization to commence automatic membership dues deductions from a teacher or administrator, the school board shall, as soon as practicable and in any event, not later than 30 calendar days after receiving the authorization, commence withholding from the teacher’s or administrator’s wages the amount of membership dues certified by the teachers’ or administrators’ organization. The school board shall transmit the amount withheld to the teachers’ or administrators’ organization on the same day as the teacher or administrator is paid. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to require a member of a teachers’ or administrators’ organization to participate in automatic dues deduction. (Added 1969, No. 127, § 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1969; amended 2005, No. 25, § 2; 2013, No. 37, § 11; 2019, No. 180 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. Jan. 1, 2021.)