In February 2019, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shalea Oliver against her employer, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the SEIU 668 for continuing to collect union dues without her consent after she resigned union membership. 

Shalea Oliver has worked as an income maintenance caseworker for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services since 2014. In her position, she helps a variety of people, including the under or unemployed, disabled and other vulnerable populations in Philadelphia. 

As a Philadelphia native, service to her city is important. She feels like she makes an impact through her work, however, she was forced to pay a government union, SEIU Local 668, in order to work for the Commonwealth.

All that changed with the decisive victory for workers’ rights in the U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision in June 2018. Oliver was hopeful that she’d finally be able to resign from SEIU and stop the union dues that cost her about $50 each month.

Unfortunately, despite the Supreme Court ruling, the Commonwealth continued deducting union dues from Oliver’s paycheck for nearly six months after she demanded the deductions stop and resigned from SEIU Local 668.

After multiple attempts to stop the union dues deductions on her own, Oliver turned to attorneys at the Liberty Justice Center for help.

Read more about Shalea’s story here.