EEOC Directs Ohio Union To Modify 'Agency Fee' Rules

By Bess Keller

A federal agency has directed a state teachers' union for the second time to drop its requirement that nonunion teachers who object to paying union fees on religious grounds reiterate their objections annually.

But the Ohio Education Association says it has already revised its practice, allowing teachers to file their objections every three years instead.

The Cleveland regional office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made a determination this month in a case originally brought by Dennis Robey, a teacher in the Huber Heights, Ohio, district near Dayton. Mr. Robey, who chooses not to be a member of the local teachers' union, elected to have his "agency fee" go to a charity rather than to the local union and the state and local unions with...