Earlier this year, it was reported that the Pennsylvania State Education Association experienced a significant data breach in 2024. The breach impacted more than 500,000 individuals, and hackers gained access to driver's license numbers, social security numbers, banking information, passport numbers and even medical information. This is incredibly troubling and a disservice to the workers who trust their union to protect their interests.

To safeguard our public-sector employees’ information and ensure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands, I will be introducing legislation similar to HB 844 from the 2021-22 session with improvements designed to protect sensitive, personal information of public employees. Specifically, this legislation will amend Section 705 of the Public Employee Relations Act (Act 195 of 1970), to prohibit Social Security numbers, driver’s license data, bank account information, passport numbers, medical information, and personal contact information of public sector employees from being proper subjects of collective bargaining.

There is simply no public policy justification for the transmission of this type of employee information in collective bargaining. Moreover, the dissemination of this information (malicious or inadvertent) can result in a myriad of undesirable outcomes, including the recent data breach, as well as unwanted solicitations or identity theft.

It is my strong conviction that legislative action is necessary to ensure the confidentiality of this sensitive information, and to protect the privacy of our Commonwealth’s workforce.

Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation.