Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. v. Hlth. Care 7 Retirement Corp.
| Decision Date | 23 May 1994 |
| Docket Number | 921964 |
| Parties | NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Petitioner v. HEALTH CARE & RETIREMENT CORPORATION OF AMERICA |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Employees are considered "supervisors," and thus are not covered under the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 152(3), if they have authority, requiring the use of independent judgment, to engage in one of 12 listed activities and they hold the authority "in the interest of the employer," § 152(11). Petitioner National Labor Relations Board has stated that a nurse's supervisory activity incidental to the treatment of patients is not authority exercised in the interest of the employer. Respondent owns and operates a nursing home at which staff nurses—including the four nurses involved in this case —are the senior ranking employees on duty most of the time, ensure adequate staffing, make daily work assignments, monitor and evaluate the work of nurses' aides, and report to management. In finding that respondent had committed an unfair labor practice in disciplining the four nurses, an administrative law judge concluded that the nurses were not supervisors because their focus was on the well-being of the residents, not the employer. The Board affirmed, but the Court of Appeals reversed, deciding that the Board's test for determining nurses' supervisory status was inconsistent with the statute.
Held: The Board's test for determining whether nurses are supervisors is inconsistent with the statute. Pp. ____.
(a) The Board has created a false dichotomy—between acts taken in connection with patient care and acts taken in the interest of the employer. Cf. NLRB v. Yeshiva Univ., 444 U.S. 672, 688, 100 S.Ct. 856, 865, 63 L.Ed.2d 115. Since patient care is a nursing home's business, it follows that attending to the needs of patients, who are the employer's customers, is in the employer's interest. This conclusion is supported by the Court's decision in Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U.S. 485, 488-489, 67 S.Ct. 789, 791-792, 91 L.Ed. 1040, interpreting the phrase "in the interest of an employer." Pp. ____.
(b) The Board's non-statutory arguments supporting its interpretation are unpersuasive. Its contention that granting organizational rights to nurses whose supervisory authority concerns patient care does not threaten the conflicting loyalties that the supervisor exception was designed to avoid is rejected. The Act must be enforced according to its own terms, not by creating legal categories inconsistent with its meaning. Nor can the tension between the Act's exclusion of supervisory and managerial employees and its inclusion of professionals be resolved by distorting the statutory language in the manner proposed by the Board. In addition, an isolated statement in the legislative history of the 1974 amendments to the Act—expressing apparent approval of the application of the Board's then-current supervisory test to nurses—does not represent an authoritative interpretation of the phrase "in the interest of the employer" enacted by Congress in 1947. Pp. ____.
987 F.2d 1256 (CA6 1993), affirmed.
Michael R. Dreeben, Washington, DC, for petitioner.
Maureen E. Mahoney, Washington, DC, for respondent.
The National Labor Relations Act affords employees the rights to organize and to engage in collective bargaining free from employer interference. The Act does not grant those rights to supervisory employees, however, so the statutory definition of supervisor becomes essential in determining which employees are covered by the Act. In this case, we decide the narrow question whether the National Labor Relations Board's test for determining if a nurse is a supervisor is consistent with the statutory definition.
Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Act of July 5, 1935, ch. 372, 49 Stat. 449. In the early years of its operation, the Act did not exempt supervisory employees from its coverage; as a result, supervisory employees could organize as part of bargaining units and negotiate with the employer. Employers complained that this produced an imbalance between labor and management, but in 1947 this Court refused to carve out a supervisory employee exception from the Act's broad coverage. The Court stated that "it is for Congress, not for us, to create exceptions or qualifications at odds with [the Act's] plain terms." Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U.S. 485, 490, 67 S.Ct. 789, 792, 91 L.Ed. 1040 (1947). Later that year, Congress did just that, amending the statute so that the term " 'employee' . . . shall not include . . . any individual employed as a supervisor." 61 Stat. 137-138, codified at 29 U.S.C. § 152(3). Congress defined a supervisor as:
"Any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment." 61 Stat. 138, codified at 29 U.S.C. § 152(11).
As the Board has stated, the statute requires the resolution of three questions; and each must be answered in the affirmative if an employee is to be deemed a supervisor. First, does the employee have authority to engage in one of the 12 listed activities? Second, does the exercise of that authority require "the use of independent judgment"? Third, does the employee hold the authority "in the interest of the employer"? Northcrest Nursing Home, 1993 WL 513158 *3-4, 1993 NLRB LEXIS 1284 *12 (1993). This case concerns only the third question, and our decision turns upon the proper interpretation of the statutory phrase "in the interest of the employer."
In cases involving nurses, the Board admits that it has interpreted the statutory phrase in a unique manner. Tr. of Oral Arg. 52 (). The Board has held that "a nurse's direction of less-skilled employees, in the exercise of professional judgment incidental to the treatment of patients, is not authority exercised 'in the interest of the employer.' " Pet. for Cert. 15. As stated in reviewing its position on this issue in its recent decision in Northcrest Nursing Home, 1993 WL 513158 *1-2, 1993 NLRB LEXIS 1284 *4-5, the Board believes that its special interpretation of "in the interest of the employer" in cases involving nurses is necessary because professional employees (including registered nurses) are not excluded from coverage under the Act. See 29 U.S.C. § 152(12). Respondent counters that "[t]here is simply no basis in the language of the statute to conclude that direction given to aides in the interest of nursing home residents, pursuant to professional norms, is not 'in the interest of the employer.' " Brief for Respondent 30.
In this case, the Board's General Counsel issued a complaint alleging that respondent, the owner and operator of the Heartland Nursing Home in Urbana, Ohio, had committed unfair labor practices in disciplining four licensed practical nurses. At Heartland, the Director of Nursing has overall responsibility for the nursing department. There is also an Assistant Director of Nursing, 9 to 11 staff nurses (including both registered nurses and the four licensed practical nurses involved in this case), and 50 to 55 nurses' aides. The staff nurses are the senior ranking employees on duty after 5 p.m. during the week and at all times on weekends approximately 75% of the time. The staff nurses have responsibility to ensure adequate staffing; to make daily work assignments; to monitor the aides' work to ensure proper performance; to counsel and discipline aides; to resolve aides' problems and grievances; to evaluate aides' performances; and to report to management. In light of these varied activities, respondent contended, among other things, that the four nurses involved in this case were supervisors, and so not protected under the Act. The administrative law judge (ALJ) disagreed, concluding that the nurses were not supervisors. The ALJ stated that the nurses' supervisory work did not "equate to responsibly directing the aides in the interest of the employer," noting that "the nurses' focus is on the well-being of the residents rather than of the employer." 306 N.L.R.B. 68, 70 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added). The Board stated only that the "[t]he judge found, and we agree, that the Respondent's staff nurses are employees within the meaning of the Act." 306 N.L.R.B. 63, 63, n. 1 (1992).
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed. 987 F.2d 1256 (1993). The Court of Appeals had decided in earlier cases that the Board's test for determining the supervisory status of nurses was inconsistent with the statute. See Beverly California Corp. v. NLRB, 970 F.2d 1548 (1992); NLRB v. Beacon Light Christian Nursing Home, 825 F.2d 1076 (1987). In Beverly, for example, the court had stated that "the notion that direction given to subordinate personnel to ensure that the employer's nursing home customers receive 'quality care' somehow fails to qualify as direction given 'in the interest of the employer' makes very little sense to us." Beverly, 970 F.2d, at 1552. Addressing the instant case, the court followed Beverly and again held the Board's interpretation inconsistent with the statute. 987 F.2d, at 1260. The court further stated that "it is up to Congress to carve out an exception for the...
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