Wincinson, March 30: The administration of Gov. Walker is no longer collecting dues on behalf of state unions and as of Sunday began charging employees more for healthcare and their pensions, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Tuesday.
Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said on Monday that administration attorneys have determined the law is now in effect despite a statement by nonpartisan legislative attorneys, who argue that the changes have not yet signed into law.
He went on to say that public employees also no longer are being billed for union dues, and those changes will show up on checks issued April 21.
The new law requires most public workers to pay at least 12.6 percent of their healthcare premiums and half the cost of their pensions — 5.8 percent of pay — for most state employees.
On February 25, Wisconsin’s State Assembly passed a controversial bill, proposed by Walker, to curtail the state’s labor unions as the ongoing political wrangling between organized workers and cash-strapped state governments engulfed across the US.
The controversial plan to curtail collective bargaining sparked huge public protests at the state Capitol in Wisconsin and several other states, prompting Senate Democrats to leave the state for three weeks in a bid to block the bill, and brought national attention to Wisconsin.
Walker, who has been beset by mounting criticism over his plans to lay off thousands of public servants, stated that the budget bill would trim Wisconsin’s structural deficit by 90 percent to $250 million.
Despite Walker’s decision to implement the law on Monday, some of the largest local governments in Wisconsin have refused to do the same as the specter of a new round of public protests loom large in the cash-strapped state.
“We’re going to hold off until we receive more definitive word from the courts,” said Bill Zaferos, a spokesman for interim Milwaukee County Executive Marvin Pratt.
Meanwhile, opposition Democrats, organized labor and other opponents of the measure have fumed over the measure, saying the legislation has no legal significance and that the law cannot take effect until their legal challenge is heard.
——-Agencies