U.S. Testing Co., Inc. v. N.L.R.B.
| Decision Date | 20 January 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-1687,97-1687 |
| Citation | 160 F.3d 14 |
| Parties | 159 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2787, 333 U.S.App.D.C. 84 UNITED STATES TESTING COMPANY, INC., Petitioner, v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
On Petition for Review and Cross-Application for Enforcement of an Order of the National Labor Relations Board.
Joseph P. Paranac, Jr. argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was David F. Jasinski.
Richard A. Cohen, Senior Attorney, National Labor Relations Board, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Linda Sher, Associate General Counsel, and John D. Burgoyne, Acting Deputy Associate General Counsel. David S. Habenstreit, Supervisory Attorney, entered an appearance.
Robert D. Kurnick was on the brief for amicus curiae International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1936.
Before: GINSBURG, SENTELLE and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge ROGERS.
The United States Testing Company petitions for review of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board finding violations of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 151 et seq., arising out of the Company's failure to provide information requested by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1936 ("the Union") during contract negotiations. 1 The Union requested information about the individual claims experience of union and nonunion employees in order to respond to the Company's proposal that union employees contribute to the medical health benefits plan. The Company provided some aggregate health cost information to the Union, but not individual claims experience.
The Board found that the Company rejected the Union's request and ordered that the information be turned over without identifying the names of the individual claimants. On appeal, the Company contends that the Board's findings of unfair labor practices were unwarranted because the Board failed to support its finding that the Union met its burden to show the relevance of the claims information, and because the Board failed to find that the individual claims experience was confidential and protected from disclosure under Detroit Edison Co. v. NLRB, 440 U.S. 301, 99 S.Ct. 1123, 59 L.Ed.2d 333 (1979). Because we conclude that the Company's contentions fail, we deny the petition and grant the Board's cross-application for enforcement of its order.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1936 has represented a small unit of technical employees at the United States Testing Company for over thirty years. When the Company, a consumer products testing provider with approximately 85 to 100 employees, experienced an economic downturn, it sought a number of changes during contract negotiations beginning in August 1995 for a contract set to expire in October. One change was for the eleven or so unionized employees to begin making contributions to their health care costs, in the same amount (thirty percent) as nonunion employees.
Noting that it previously had rejected similar proposals, the Union again refused to agree to make contributions and stated that before it could make counterproposals to meet the Company's request to reduce health care costs by thirty percent, it needed certain information: Specifically, the Union asked the Company to provide the names of the union and nonunion employees (and their dependents) who participated in the health plan, the individual claims submitted by each plan member, and the benefits paid for each claim for the past eight months. The Company took the position that the Union did not need, and was not entitled to, the information concerning nonunion employees.
During the course of negotiations, the Company ultimately turned over to the Union (1) the premium rate and premium paid for union employees, (2) a "benefit and service analysis" consisting of the coverage rates, charges, and adjustments for medical and dental benefits for all employees, (3) a benefits cost analysis that the Company had prepared for single and family coverage, showing the monthly premium and the percentage of premiums paid by an employee contributing thirty percent; (4) the insurance carrier's summary of its experience monitoring the period of March 1994 through August 1995, including the total claims and premiums paid and the ratio of the two numbers; (5) a list of the names, premiums, and claims paid for each union employee; and (6) the total amounts of premiums and claims paid for union employees, nonunion employees, and for all employees. What the Company did not provide were the individual claims by each member of the plan (employees and their dependents), showing the nature of the claims submitted and benefits paid.
The Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") found that the information the Company provided to the Union was insufficient because it did not adequately identify the costs of the benefits. To the extent that the Company was proposing that union employees contribute towards the payment of the high costs of claims by nonunion employees (and their dependents), the ALJ found that the information sought by the Union was relevant. The Union explained that it sought to determine what types of claims generated the highest costs; for that, it needed individual claims information. 2 According to the ALJ, the Union's position was that if most of the large claims were for surgeries as opposed to physicians' visits and x-rays, the Union would examine the plan to determine whether the existing coverage for surgery could be changed to reduce costs. As an alternative to a thirty-percent contribution, the Union might propose managed care, preadmission testing, outpatient surgery, a higher deductible, or a required co-payment. The ALJ noted that the Company's explanation in its pretrial affidavit for not providing the information was simply that the Union had failed to explain why the individual claims were relevant; the affidavit made no mention of a concern about privacy. Nevertheless, the ALJ concluded that the Company's bargaining notes reflected that it had raised a legitimate concern about privacy early in the negotiations regarding the names of the claimants, which, if connected with the claim itself, might reveal private medical information. Therefore, in ordering the Company to turn over the individual claims information, the ALJ directed that the names of the claimants not be disclosed.
The Board adopted the ALJ's findings and conclusions. Based on the information the Company supplied showing that the claims experience of union and nonunion employees was quite divergent, the Union was entitled to examine the issue and thereby justify its position that union employees need not contribute. Noting that health care costs are clearly a subject of mandatory bargaining and have become an increasingly important issue as the costs have risen, the Board observed that the Company
should not have been surprised that the Union was seeking more than to juggle premium formulas, the role to which the [Company] wished to confine it, but rather sought to participate meaningfully in structuring the benefits for which the [Company] wanted the bargaining unit to pay. In seeking to play a role in the solution, rather than simply making a substantial concession on the [Company's] say-so, the Union was fulfilling its role as the employees' statutory bargaining representative.
However, as the ALJ found, the names of the individual claimants were irrelevant and the Board adopted the ALJ's recommended order denying the Union access to that information, clarifying that the Union was entitled to the rest of the individual claims information without having to renew its request. In addition to concluding that the Company violated § 8(a)(5) and (1) by rejecting the Union's request for relevant information, the Board also concluded that the Company unlawfully declared an impasse and violated § 8(a)(3) and (1) by refusing to rehire the striking workers. The Company challenges all of the Board's findings of unfair labor practices.
The Company contends that the Board erred in two respects in ruling that the Company should have complied with the Union's request for the medical claims histories of the nonunion employees and their dependents: first, because its finding that the Union met its burden to show the relevance of the claims information is unsupported by the record and, second, in any event, the information was confidential and thus protected from disclosure under Detroit Edison. The Company further contends that the findings that no lawful impasse existed between the parties, especially given the time devoted to bargaining and the Union's bad faith, and that the strike by union employees was an unfair labor practice strike are unsupported by substantial evidence. Consequently, the Company contends, it was entitled to implement its final offer and did not commit unfair labor practices by hiring permanent replacements and refusing to rehire the union employees engaging in an economic strike.
The court applies the familiar substantial evidence test to the Board's findings of fact and application of law to the facts, see NLRB v. United Ins. Co., 390 U.S. 254, 260, 88 S.Ct. 988, 19 L.Ed.2d 1083 (1968); Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951), and accords due deference to the reasonable inferences that the Board draws from the evidence, see Peoples Gas Sys., Inc. v. NLRB, 629 F.2d 35, 42 (D.C.Cir.1980), regardless of whether the court might have reached a different conclusion de novo. Universal Camera, 340 U.S. at 488, 71 S.Ct. 456.
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