Florida Senate Bill 256 changed how public sector union dues in Florida are collected and how unions keep their certification. Signed on May 9, 2023, the law bars most public employers from deducting union dues from employee paychecks, requires unions to keep at least 60% of eligible workers as dues-paying members, and forces every covered union to file an independently audited financial statement each year.1Florida Senate. CS/CS/SB 256 – Employee Organizations Representing Public Employees The payroll deduction ban took effect July 1, 2023. The 60% threshold and recertification rules took effect October 1, 2023.
No More Payroll Deduction for Dues
Under the amended Section 447.303, a certified bargaining agent covered by SB 256 may no longer have dues or uniform assessments deducted from employee paychecks by the employer.2Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XXXI Chapter 447 Part II – Section 447.303 Members can still pay, but they have to pay the union directly, using methods like ACH transfers, credit card payments, or direct billing.
Payroll deduction had been essentially automatic revenue. Removing it means every member must affirmatively set up a new payment method with the union. Unions that were slow to make that transition saw membership numbers drop quickly, which fed straight into the 60% problem below.
The 60% Membership Requirement
To keep its certification, a covered union must have at least 60% of all eligible employees in the bargaining unit signed up and paying dues during the most recent registration period. A union that falls below that mark has 30 days from applying for its annual registration renewal to petition the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) for a recertification election.3Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 447.305 A union that skips this process loses its certification.
In a recertification election, PERC conducts a secret ballot among all employees in the bargaining unit. If a majority of those who vote choose to keep the union, it holds its certification for another year. If it loses, PERC revokes its status as the exclusive bargaining agent.
The 60% test is applied every year at renewal. Unions below the line face mandatory elections annually until they either rebuild their membership above the threshold or lose a vote.
What Decertification Costs Workers
Losing certification is not just a paperwork change. When a union is decertified, the collective bargaining agreement it negotiated becomes void. Pay scales, grievance procedures, benefits, and workplace protections in that contract go with it, and employees revert to whatever terms the employer sets on its own.
As of mid-2025, more than 100 public sector bargaining units in Florida had been decertified under SB 256, and an estimated 69,000 workers had lost union representation. Higher education staff and adjunct faculty units were hit especially hard. Most surviving non-exempt unions are not actually clearing 60%; they are staying alive by winning annual recertification elections.
Who the Law Does Not Cover
Section 447.303 exempts bargaining units where the majority of represented employees work as law enforcement officers, correctional officers, correctional probation officers, firefighters, 911 public safety telecommunicators, or emergency medical technicians and paramedics.2Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XXXI Chapter 447 Part II – Section 447.303 Public employers may continue deducting dues from paychecks in those units, and those unions are not subject to the 60% recertification trigger.
Employees in exempt units who want to stop payroll deduction have to give 30 days’ written notice to both the employer and the union.2Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XXXI Chapter 447 Part II – Section 447.303
Mass transit bargaining units are also effectively shielded. SB 256 includes a waiver acknowledging that enforcing the payroll deduction ban and recertification rules against transit workers could conflict with federal transit funding requirements under Section 13(c) of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964.4U.S. Government Accountability Office. Employee Protection Agreements Under the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 The U.S. Department of Labor determined that SB 256 was incompatible with those federal protections, and a U.S. district judge rejected a challenge by Florida’s attorney general to the constitutionality of the federal rule.
How Members Sign Up and Leave
An employee who wants to join a covered union must sign a membership authorization form that includes information set by statute: the bargaining agent’s name, the employee’s name and job classification, the amount of initiation fees and monthly dues, and the compensation of the union’s five highest-paid officers and employees.5Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XXXI Chapter 447 Part II – Section 447.301 That last item is meant to show members where their money goes before they agree to pay.
Members can revoke at any time in writing. The union must process the revocation. It cannot limit revocations to specific windows, and if it uses a revocation form, that form cannot ask the employee to explain why they are leaving.5Florida Senate. Florida Code Title XXXI Chapter 447 Part II – Section 447.301
Annual Audited Financial Report
Every covered union has to file an annual renewal application with PERC that includes a current financial statement prepared by an independent certified public accountant. The statement must detail the union’s assets and liabilities, all receipts and their sources, disbursements by category, compensation paid to each officer and any employee earning more than $10,000 annually, and any loans over $250 made to officers, employees, or members.3Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes Section 447.305
The CPA requirement is a real cost, especially for small locals. Professional audit fees for a small organization typically run $4,000 to $15,000 or more depending on complexity. A union that cannot afford the audit or fails to file the renewal risks losing its registration.
Where the Law Stands in Court
SB 256 has been challenged on several fronts. In federal court, a U.S. district judge ruled that the payroll deduction ban, applied to unions whose existing collective bargaining agreements specifically provided for payroll deduction, violated the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The court found the law impaired the obligations of those active contracts. The ruling applied to the specific plaintiff unions in the case but flagged a constitutional weakness in the law’s reach into agreements already in place.
In state court, unions have argued that SB 256 violates Article I, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution, which protects the right of employees to bargain collectively. Florida courts have treated collective bargaining as a fundamental right that can be restricted only to serve a compelling state interest through minimally invasive means. The trial court initially dismissed the suit for lack of standing because the unions filed before the October 2023 compliance deadline, then allowed them to amend their collective bargaining claim while dismissing an equal protection challenge with prejudice.