Michigan Supreme Court unanimously rules to return 3% to school employees / FAQ's

Dec 20, 2017

December 20th, marked a major victory for Michigan school employees, as the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled to return more than a half billion dollars illegally taken from school employees in the long-running 3 percent case.
 
In a dramatic December conclusion to a nearly 8-year-long legal battle, the Court ruled 6-0 to uphold lower court rulings that found the withholding to be illegal on a variety of constitutional grounds.
 
“I cannot imagine a better pre-holiday gift to Michigan’s school employees than getting their hard-earned money returned to them,” said MEA President Paula Herbart. “This is the culmination of years of work by both AFT Michigan and MEA on behalf of our members.  This reinforces why being a member of a union matters – working collectively, we won this case that no individual could have fought for themselves.”

MEA General Council, Michael Shoudy, has developed a set of Frequently Asked Questions to assist members who have questions in regards to the 3% refund.  Please click here to review these FAQ's.

Logistics will need to be determined for how school employees will receive the refund of over $550 million that’s been held in escrow since 2010-2012, but today’s ruling ends a long string of unsuccessful appeals by Governor Rick Snyder and – until this final appeal – Attorney General Bill Schuette.

Anyone who worked in Michigan schools in the affected time period from 2010-12, and had the 3 percent taken from their paychecks, will get money returned. We do not have information about how or when that will happen at this time. For more information, visit MEA’s 3 percent FAQ page.

Make sure MEA has your home email address so we can keep you up to date on developments about when and how money will be returned—Email webmaster@mea.org with your information.
 
“We hope the governor and attorney general work with us – as opposed to their years of fighting us – to ensure employees get their money returned to them in a timely fashion,” said AFT Michigan President David Hecker. “Michigan’s school employees have waited eight long years to get their hard-earned money returned to them – no futher delay is necessary.”