Columbus, USA - State employees who have religious objections to the causes supported by their union should be able to divert their dues to any charity, not just to a specific church, state and federal officials agreed Friday in a settlement.
In an agreement hashed out with the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the state and its largest state employee union agreed to give all employees — not just active churchgoers — the same opportunity to divert their union dues to another organization for religious reasons. The settlement affects 37,000 of Ohio's unionized public employees.
"The law protects the religious observances, practices and beliefs of all Americans," Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The settlement resulted from a complaint by an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency employee without a church affiliation who opposed paying dues to the union because of what he called its support of abortion and same-sex marriage.
While the union had a policy allowing employees with similar objections to divert their dues to their churches, synagogues or other religious organizations, it prohibited members without church affiliations from making similar donations to a secular charity.
The agreement concedes that such a policy violates equal protection statutes.
OCSEA spokesman Peter Wray said the union's latest state contract, finalized in February, contains a procedure for "religious exemption" that satisfies the terms of Friday's agreement. He said the original language was intended to prevent members from diverting dues to illegitimate religious organizations.
Two other state unions, the Ohio Education Association and the Service Employees International Union, have agreed to similar contract language.
Ben Piscatelli, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, said that, in light of the settlement, the state will inform its unionized employees of their right to make charitable donations rather than pay union dues.