J. M. High Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 6, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 876 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

Tit the Matter of J. M. HIGH COMPANY, EMPLOYER and RETAIL CLERKS
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, A. F. OF L., PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-75.-Decided August 6, 1948
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the National Labor Relations Board. The hearing officer's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-man panel consisting of Chairman Herzog and
Members Murdock and Gray.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.'
2. The labor organization named below claims to represent em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The appropriate unit:
The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all employees of the Em-
ployer at its Atlanta, Georgia, department store, excluding all office
clerical employees, buyers, guards, professional employees, and super-
visors. The Employer contends that the unit should include all em-
ployees, both selling and non-selling, but excluding executive-office
clerical employees, as distinguished from store clericals, all watchmen,
and supervisors. The parties essentially agree as to the composition
of the unit, but are in dispute as to the inclusion in the unit of the
floorwalker, 2 part-time watchmen, sales authorizers, sales checkers,
' Matter of S 11. Kress & Company, Case No. 10-RC-120, issued August 23, 1948;
Matter of Phelps Dodge Mercantile Company, 78 N. L R B. 179; Matter of Parks-Belk
Company of Ela„abethton, 77 N. L. R. B 429
78 N. L. R. B, No. 120.
876
J. M. HIGH COMPANY 877
new account interviewers, and employees of leased departments.
About 160 employees are directly involved.
The Floorwalker: There is only one floorwalker at the Employer's
store, who works primarily on the main floor. The Petitioner would
exclude him as a supervisor. The floorwalker's duties are to direct
customers to various departments, to fill out and approve refunds and
merchandise credits, to see that the various departments are adequately
manned, and, in general, to see that customers are well treated. In the
course of his duties, he may request the store superintendent to assign
employees from one department to another and, in an emergency, he
may make the assignment himself. He may also make recommenda-
tions to the superintendent regarding the discipline of employees. It
appears, however, that such recommendations are followed only if sub-
stantiated by the superintendent's independent judgment. We believe
that the floorwalker is not a supervisor within the meaning of the Act.2
As his interests are intimately related to those of the other employees
whom the Petitioner seeks to represent, we shall include him in the
unit.
The Watchmen: In addition to one full-time watchman, whom the
parties agree to exclude, the Employer employs two relief watchmen,
who alternate in working on the regular watchman's night off and on
Sundays and holidays. The Petitioner would include the relief watch-
men in the unit. The record reveals that each works only 12 hours a
week in the capacity of a watchman and spends the remaining 41/2
days of the week working in the shipping department. As these two
employees devote the bulk of their working time to their duties in the
shipping department, we find that they are not employed as guards, but
as shipping department employees. We shall therefore include them
in the unit.3
Sales Authorizers, Sales Checkers, and New Account Interviewers:
Sales authorizers, sales checkers, and new account interviewers are
clerical employees who work under the supervision of the credit man-
ager. Sales authorizers check the customers' ledgers to make sure
that they have not exceeded their credit limits. Sales checkers audit
the sales checks after completion of the sales, verifying the calculations
on the checks, and seeing that the sales are credited to the proper
departments and that credit sales are charged to the correct accounts.
New account interviewers, who are also referred to as credit checkers,
interview applicants for credit, obtaining the information called for
by the Employer's standard credit application blank. Although they
do not generally have authority to pass on applications for credit, they
2 Matter of Denver Dry Goods Company, 74 N L R B 1167, Matter of Louts Pizitz Dry
Goods Company, 71 N L R B 579
8 Matter of-Radio Corporation of America (R C. A Victor Di vision), 76 N L R. B 826.
878 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
may approve or disapprove applications by persons who have regular
accounts to purchase merchandise on a "club account" or contract
account. In the case of contract purchases, the new account inter.
viewers see that the contracts are properly filled out and executed.
The Employer contends that these groups of employees should be
included in the unit because their duties, like those of the floor clericals,
form an integral part of the consummation of sales. The Petitioner is
,opposed to their inclusion on the ground that they are executive-office
clericals.
Both the Employer and the Petitioner seek a unit of selling and non-
selling employees, a grouping which the Board has frequently recog-
nized as appropriate for department stores,4 The requested unit, how-
ever, would include floor clerical employees but would exclude office
-clerical employees. We perceive no basis for this distinction, and shall
therefore include all clerical employees, including sales authorizers,
sales checkers, new account interviewers, and executive-office clericals,
in the unit.5
Employees of Leased Departments: The Employer leases to conces-
sionaires the beauty salon, shoe departments, shoe repair department,
library and book department, millinery department, and optical de-
partment. Employees of each of these departments are hired by the
lessee and are subject to the supervision of its manager. Their wages,
hours, and working conditions are set by the lessee rather than by the
Employer. Although these employees are paid by the Employer, who,
in turn, is reimbursed by the lessee, the latter keeps its own pay roll
and reports these employees for social security and withholding tax
purposes. On the other hand, the Employer exercises some general
control and supervision over employees in these departments, as well °
as over the services rendered by the departments, to see that they con-
form to general company policies or regulations. The Employer has
the right to request the discharge of any employee whom it finds objec-
tionable, but this is rarely done. Employees of leased departments are
subject to the same rules and regulations as are other employees in the
store, are entitled to the same discount privileges, and are eligible for
participation in a store-wide hospitalization plan.
The Employer seeks to include employees of leased departments
while the Petitioner seeks to exclude them from the unit. We believe
that these employees do not possess sufficient interests in common with
employees in other departments of the store to be joined for collective
* Matter of Montgomery Ward & Co., Incorporated, 70 N. L. R. B. 1302, at 1303 ; Matter
of Sears, Roebuck and Co., 66 N. L. R. B. 285 ; Matter of Service Stores Corporation, 62
N. L. R. B. 1161 , Matter of Richman Brothers Co., 59 N. L. R. B. 339.
5 Matter of Taylor's Oak Ridge Corporation , 74 N. L. R. B. 930, at 932-933 ; Matter of
Louis Pizitz Dry Goods Company, 71 N. L. R. B. 579.
J. M. HIGH COMPANY 879
'bargaining purposes with the latter. We shall therefore exclude em-
ployees of leased departments from the unit.°
We find that all employees of the Employer at its Atlanta, Georgia,
department store, excluding the full-time watchman, employees of
leased departments, professional employees, buyers, and all other su-
pervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with J. M. High Company , Atlanta,
Georgia, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as
possible , but not later than thirty ( 30) days from the date of this
Direction , under the direction and supervision of the Regional Direc-
tor for the Tenth Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5,
among the employees in the unit found appropriate in paragraph num-
bered 4, above , who were employed during the pay-roll period imme-
diately preceding the date of this Direction of Election , including
employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off , but excluding those
employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have
not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and
also excluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstate-
ment, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented, for
purposes of collective bargaining , by Retail Clerks International Asso-
ciation , A. F. of L.
MEMBER GRAY took no part in the consideration of the above Deci-
sion and Direction of Election.
e Matter of The May Department Stores Company , d/b/a Famous-Barr Company, 54
N. L. R. B . 230, at 238-239; Matter of J. L. Brandeis & Sons, 50 N. L. R. B. 325, at 329;
Matter of Montgomery Ward and Co ., Inc., 41 N. L. R B. 122, at 125; Matter of The May
Department Stores Company , doing business as The May Company, 39 N. L. R. B. 471, at
479-480. But see Matter of Taylor 's Oak Ridge Corporation, 74 N. L. R. B. 930, at
1931-932; Matter of Louis Pizitz Dry Goods Company, 71 N. L. R. B. 579, at 582 ; Matter of
Rate Brothers Stores, Inc., 62 N. L. R. B. 367 , at 370-371.