Miami, FL (September 30, 2010) \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Florida public school teacher successfully challenged a discriminatory policy that prevented nonunion educators from bringing a representative of their choosing to school conferences that can result in disciplinary action. <\/p>\n
Shawn Beightol, a veteran chemistry teacher at Michael Krop Senior High School, was told to report to the Miami-Dade County Office of Professional Standards (OPS) to discuss a possible violation of the school\u2019s email policy last October. Although the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) union is the exclusive bargaining agent for the Miami-Dade School District, Beightol refused to associate with the union and is instead a member of the Professional Educators Network of Florida (PENFL), a nonunion teachers association. When Beightol brought a representative from PENFL to the October hearing, school officials refused to allow his advisor to participate, citing a provision in the union\u2019s contract with the district.<\/p>\n
Beightol responded by filing charges against union officials and the school district with the help of Foundation attorneys, alleging that this provision unfairly discriminates against nonunion teachers by denying them the opportunity to bring personal representatives to professional hearings. Although UTD members are entitled to union representatives at these conferences, the teachers\u2019 contract \u2013 negotiated by union officials with the school district \u2013 forbids nonunion representatives from participating. This practice effectively discourages teachers from leaving the UTD or joining a voluntary teacher association by forcing them to join the union for assistance at school conferences. <\/p>\n
Florida law explicitly prohibits union officials from causing public employers to discriminate against nonmember employees. Florida\u2019s popular Right to Work Law also guarantees that no employee \u2013 public or private \u2013 can be coerced into joining a union or paying union dues.<\/p>\n
Following an investigation, a hearing officer from the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission concluded that the union\u2019s contract violated state law. The officer recommended that the Commission strike down the union\u2019s discriminatory contract and require UTD officials to post public notices informing teachers of their rights to nonunion representation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis policy is nothing more than an underhanded way to weaken workplace protections, including Florida\u2019s popular Right to Work law, that forbid unions from forcing workers to join through coercion or discriminatory workplace practices,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Legal Information Director for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cThe Public Employees Relations Commission should take these recommendations to heart and strike down this discriminatory contract immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Miami, FL (September 30, 2010) \u2013 With free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a Florida public school teacher successfully challenged a discriminatory policy that prevented nonunion educators from bringing a representative of their choosing to school conferences that can result in disciplinary action. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n