The Florida Police Benevolent Association has dropped a challenge to a proposed rule stemming from a new law that places additional requirements and restrictions on public-employee unions.
Administrative Law Judge Suzanne Van Wyk issued an order Wednesday closing a case that the PBA filed June 19.
The Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis this spring approved the law, which includes such changes as requiring that public-employee union members sign “membership authorization” forms.
The Florida Public Employees Relations Commission, which is responsible for carrying out the law, published a proposed rule and the membership form.
The law included an exemption from the new requirements for unions that represent law-enforcement officers, correctional officers and firefighters.
But the PBA challenged the proposed rule and membership form because of concerns that the requirements could apply to PBA members, such as dispatchers and 911 operators, who are not law-enforcement or correctional officers.
It argued that the Public Employees Relations Commission’s proposal was vague and threatened to improperly go beyond the law’s requirements.
The commission last week filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying that alleged ambiguities relate to the law.
“In short, PBA insists that PERC’s rule is invalid because the statute, not PERC’s rule, is ambiguous,” the commission’s motion said. “However, PERC’s proposed rule does not enlarge, modify, or contravene the statute. PERC has done what the statute required it to do at this stage of implementing the new law by supplying a statutorily mandated form to meet a July 1 effective date for the form.”
The PBA on Friday filed a notice of dismissing the case but did not detail the reasons.
©2023 The News Service of Florida
