HARRISBURG — The lawyer of a Slippery Rock University professor has vowed to appeal a decision throwing out her claim that the faculty union is improperly using union dues to fund a political action committee.

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board — PLRB — last week declined to investigate a claim that faculty members are being overcharged union dues by the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, APSCUF, and the money is being used for political purposes.

The Fairness Center, which provides free legal service to public employees who experience trouble with their unions, filed an unfair labor charge last May on behalf of Mary Ann Dailey, a nursing professor who joined SRU in 2013. Dailey is also a former state representative from Montgomery County.

Dailey claims the organization, which represents about 475 professors and 30 coaches at SRU, and thousands of employees at Pennsylvania’s 13 other state owned universities, has overcharged on membership dues for years.

The center said APSCUF then holds an annual Dues Rebate Campaign, asking members to donate the overpaid dues — which amount to $25 per member — to the union’s political action committee.

Members can choose to recoup the money, but David Osborne, the center’s president general counsel, said they must fill out and turn paperwork to the union before a set deadline, or the union keeps their money.

Dailey said she tried to recoup her money last year, but was told she missed the cutoff date, which is April 1.

“It’s unfair, frustrating, and burdensome,” she said in a press release issued Monday by the center. “They shouldn’t have taken extra money from me in the first place.”

The center claims the practice earned APSCUF’s political action committee $66,000 in 2014 and has been ongoing since at least 1997.

In a final order issued Feb. 16 the PLRB said that Dailey’s allegations “did not rise to the level of an unfair practice,” and that the board lacks jurisdiction in what it called an “internal union matter.”

“Nothing in (Dailey’s) charge supports the notion of restraint or coercion,” the PLRB’s order states.

Osborne said Wednesday that he intends to appeal the PLRB’s decision to the state Commonwealth Court.

“We’ll ask for the court to make that determination as a matter of law,” Osborne said. “There are no factual disputes. The union has agreed basically to the facts. They run this scam every year.”

Any appeal to the PLRB’s order must be filed within 30 days.

“I think it’s obvious that this is a scheme that takes advantage of professors. They’re busy people who don’t always have time to file something for the return of $25,” Osborne said. “It’s really enriched APSCUF ... and I think it fits the definition of an unfair labor practice (and) ultimately, we’ve got to put an end to it.”

APSCUF spokesman Kathryn Morton said the union does not comment on pending litigation.