HARRISBURG — A Slippery Rock University professor has filed a complaint against the faculty union alleging that it is overcharging on membership dues to fund a political action committee.

The Fairness Center, which provides free legal services to public employees who have troubles with their unions, filed the unfair labor charge on behalf of Mary Ann Dailey, a nursing professor who joined the faculty in 2013.

The charges against the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties — APSCUF — was filed Monday with the state Labor Relations Board.

“I feel taken advantage of,” Dailey said in a statement.

APSCUF represents more than 6,000 in the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education, including about 475 professors and 30 coaches at SRU.

According to the Fairness Center, every year since at least 1997, APSCUF has overcharged membership dues, then holds an annual “Dues Rebate Campaign,” asking members to donate their overpaid dues to the union’s political action committee.

Nate Bohlander, assistant general counsel for the center, said the union assumes that if a member donates to the political action committee one year, that the member will continue to donate the following year.

“If APSCUF fails to hear from members within a brief and arbitrary window, it keeps their money for union activities that may also be political in nature,” Bohlander said in a statement.

He claimed this practice netted the political action committee $66,000 last year. Dailey said she filed paperwork last year to get her overcharged dues back, but was told that she missed the opportunity to get the money back.

“I think it’s unfair. It’s frustrating and burdensome. They shouldn’t have taken extra money from me in the first place,” said Dailey, who is a former state representative for Montgomery County.

Under the Public Employee Relations Act (PERA), it is an unfair labor practice for a public-sector union to “coerce” employees into “assist[ing]” the union or to engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of ... mutual aid and protection.”

“APSCUF members are required to pay the union the amount it sets in membership dues,” noted Bohlander. “By artificially overcharging dues, the union is coercing members into assisting the union. It’s a violation of Pennsylvania labor law.

Dailey is asking for a cease-and-desist order against APSCUF from the state labor board.

Carrie Hillman, an APSCUF spokesman, said that the union had no immediate comment.

“Our attorneys are reviewing everything,” Hillman said.

Kenn Marshall, a spokesman for the state system, and Karl Schwab, an SRU spokesman, said the matter was an internal union matter and they would not comment.

“It doesn’t involve us (directly),” Schwab said.