ASK FIRST: Workers' Rights
Government Employees Control Their Paychecks
The Ask First policy is designed to protect the rights of individual government employees - teachers, clerks, police officers, fire fighters, road construction workers, and others. Most Colorado government employees who join a union give a one-time authorization for continuing dues deductions from their paychecks. Some government payroll systems are used to extract union fees from workers who never opted to join a union. Learn more about government employees' rights here.
Ask First does not affect a government employee's ability to join a union or other membership organization, or the ability to support a charity or political cause. Ask First allows deductions for certain charitable contributions - such as United Way - giving employees the opportunity each year to decide whether a deduction should continue. Fees for membership organizations or contributions to political causes can be arranged conveniently through private banking transactions.
Ask First is designed to promote Workers' Rights by:
1. Giving government employees
greater control of their financial decisions to join membership organizations
or to support political causes.
2. Providing government employees with basic privacy concerning political or
membership decisions that government officials have no business knowing.
3. Allowing government employees to continue using payroll deduction for all tax
withholdings, retirement and health benefits, court-ordered support payments,
and certain charitable contributions.
Ask First also is designed to promote Clean Government.
© 2007 Independence Institute
The information on these pages is published for educational purposes only, and not to advocate for the passage or defeat of any ballot measure.