Waiver of Union Dues Erroneously Deducted

A labor union requested waiver of the repayment of union dues it received which had been erroneously withheld from three employees after they had been promoted out of its bargaining unit. The employees had all authorized the agency to deduct the dues from their pay and to remit the money directly to the union. The agency failed to terminate the dues allotments from the employees to the union when they were promoted. Upon discovering its error, the agency refunded to the employees the amounts withheld by mistake and recouped that amount from current amounts due to the union. The union protested the action, contending that: (1) it did not know who among its members were supervisors; (2) it was not aware that it had received erroneously withheld funds; and (3) it provided services to these employees during the period in question. When an agency fails to terminate union dues allotments from employees promoted to supervisory positions, continued withholdings are erroneous. Remittance of those withholdings to the union represents erroneous payments which can be considered for waiver. GAO saw no reason to object to the agency's action in refunding the dues to the employees in this case. Since the allotments represented pay otherwise due to the employees, the erroneous payments to the union qualified for waiver consideration, and the union was entitled to request a waiver of the Government's claim. The record showed that the union was not at fault in this matter. The erroneous payments were made through an administrative error on the agency's part. Accordingly, the collection from the union of the amount representing erroneously paid union dues allotments was waived.