§89-3.5  Religious exemption from support ofemployee organization.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to thecontrary, any employee who is a member of and adheres to established andtraditional tenets or teachings of a bona fide religion, body, or sect whichhas historically held conscientious objections to joining or financiallysupporting employee organizations shall not be required to join or financiallysupport any employee organization as a condition of employment; except that anemployee may be required in a contract between an employee's employer andemployee organization in lieu of periodic dues and initiation fees, to pay sumsequal to the dues and initiation fees to a nonreligious, nonlabor organizationcharitable fund exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the InternalRevenue Code, chosen by the employee from a list of at least three funds,designated in the contract or if the contract fails to designate any funds,then to any fund chosen by the employee.  If an employee who holdsconscientious objections pursuant to this section requests the employeeorganization to use the grievance-arbitration procedure on the employee'sbehalf, the employee organization is authorized to charge the employee for thereasonable cost of using the procedure. [L 1982, c 102, §1; am L 1983, c 124,§3]