Voluntary Deductions
Employee Organization Membership Fees

Overview

State employees (defined as employees of a Texas state agency; the term includes elected or appointed officials, part-time employees, hourly employees, temporary employees, employees who are not covered by Texas Government Code, Chapter 654 [the Position Classification Act], and a combination of the preceding; the term excludes independent contractors and employees of independent contractors) and employees of institutions of higher education may authorize monthly deductions from their salary or wages (including base salary or wages, longevity pay or hazardous duty pay) to pay membership fees to eligible organizations. Participation is voluntary.

Note: A state employee with an existing authorization for a payroll deduction before the June 20, 2021, effective date of the amended 34 Texas Administrative Code Section 5.46 will not be required to submit a new authorization form. However, a state employee who authorizes a payroll deduction under this section on or after June 20, 2021, must submit a properly completed authorization form in accordance with the requirements below.

Authorization form

Employees must complete a Comptroller-approved authorization form and submit it to their human resources or payroll office. In addition, employees are encouraged to submit a copy of the completed authorization form to the organization that will be receiving the membership fees. The authorization form remains in effect until another form or other written notification is submitted to the employee’s human resources or payroll office to change or cancel the deduction.

Deductions

Deductions for membership fees to employee organizations are taken after taxes have been calculated. The deduction may not be made if the employee’s pay is not sufficient to cover the employee organization deduction. For example, the deduction may not be made if a higher-priority deduction is present, such as child support or tax levy, and the employee’s pay is not sufficient to cover the employee organization deduction after the higher priority deductions are taken.

State agencies using a semimonthly payroll must take this deduction during the second half of the month.

Agency Responsibilities

Authorization and cancellation of deductions

If the agency receives a form on the first calendar day of a month, then the deduction or cancellation begins with the salary or wages paid on the first workday of the month following the month when the agency receives the form. If a form is received after the first calendar day of a month, then the deduction or cancellation begins no later than salary or wages paid on the first workday of the second month following the month when the agency receives the form from the employee.

Detail reports to eligible organizations

State agencies must submit a detail report each month to each eligible organization that receives amounts deducted from the salary or wages of the agency’s employees. The agency must submit the report no later than the 15th calendar day of the month. If the 15th calendar day of the month is not a workday, then the deadline to submit the report is the first workday after the 15th calendar day.

Detail reports must include names, Social Security numbers and the amount of the actual deduction made for each employee. The report must include these items regardless of whether the deduction actually occurred.

Agencies must review any discrepancies identified by an organization and contact the organization to reconcile the issue. If the agency is notified within 60 days of the report submission date, the agency must correct the error. However, if the agency is not contacted within the 60-day time frame, the agency is not obligated to reconcile the error.

If an identified discrepancy involves an employee the organization does not already have contact information for, it must be reconciled no later than the 10th day after the agency receives the organization’s reconciling items report.

Other considerations

• When a state employee submits a cancellation form or written notification to cancel a deduction, the employing agency must notify the organization with the next detail report to the affected organization.
• If a state agency erroneously deducts more than the amount authorized by the employee, the overage may be recovered by offsetting the overage amount from a subsequent payment of deducted amounts to the organization. The agency may obtain a refund of the overage from the organization only if no subsequent payments to the organization are expected.

  For example:

  An employee authorized an $8 deduction. In January, an agency deducts $10, creating a $2 overage. On the February report, the agency will show an $8 deduction with a $2 overage deduction on separate lines, showing a net deduction of $6. The combined deductions for January and February will equal $16.

• Institutions of higher education are authorized to assess an administrative fee for making employee deductions to membership organizations. This fee will be withheld from the employee’s pay.
• The Comptroller’s office may charge an administrative fee to cover the costs of providing payroll deductions for employee organization membership fees. The qualifying state employee organization is responsible for paying the fee. The Comptroller’s office will determine the amount and method used for collecting the fees. At this time, the Comptroller’s office is not charging an administrative fee to employee organizations for this service.

To learn more about this payroll deduction, see Chapter 9, “Deductions,” in the USPS Process Guide or the SPRS Deduction Code Table.

Sources

Texas Government Code, Sections 403.0165 and 659.1031-110; 34 Texas Administrative Code Section 5.46.