John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 18, 1948

78 N.L.R.B. 1073 (N.L.R.B. 1948)

In the Matter of JOHN HANCOCK MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY,
EMPLOYER and INSURANCE SUPERVISORS UNION, No. 24221, AFL,
PETITIONER
Case No. 20-R-777.-Decided August 18,1948
DECISION
AND
ORDER
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. The request for oral argument, made by Industrial &
Ordinary Insurance Agents Council, AFL, with which the Petitioner
is affiliated, is hereby denied, as the record and briefs, in our opinion,
adequately present the issues and the positions of the parties.
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 the undersigned Board
Members.*
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 involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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 for the following reasons :
The Petitioner seeks to be certified as representative of a unit con-
sisting of the assistant district managers in the Employer's Greater
New York regional territory. The Employer contends that the Board
may not certify a representative for its assistant district managers
*Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Gray.
78 N. L. R. B., No. 150.
1073
1074 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
because they are supervisors within the meaning of the Act.' The
Petitioner asserts that in fact they are non-supervisory employees,
and that all supervisory authority in the district offices resides with the
district managers.
The Employer, whose home office is in Boston, Massachusetts, is
engaged in the business of selling various types of life insurance
throughout the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada. The
Employer's operations are divided for administrative purposes into
3 departments : district agencies, general agencies, and group depart-
ments. A director of agencies, located at the Employer's home office,
is in charge of the district agency department, which, geographically,
is divided into 10 regional territories, covering the entire United
States. The territories are in turn divided into numerous districts,
each containing a district office .2
The personnel of each district office generally consists of a district
manager, 4 to 6 assistant district managers, and approximately 45
agents, plus an office supervisor or cashier and various clerical em-
ployees. Each assistant district manager is assigned to work with
a group of approximately 7 or 8 agents, each of whom has a "debit,"
consisting of a group of weekly premium policy holders, located in a
specific part of the district, from whom the agent regularly collects
premiums. An agent's compensation consists of a commission based
on the dollar amount of the debit, the lapses in the debit, and the
writing of new business. The assistant district manager receives a
base pay plus an overriding commission calculated on the total of
his agents' debits, lapses, new business, and conservation of old
business.
The record discloses that agents are hired by the Employer through
its director of agencies at its home office in Boston. However, the
hiring of agents is generally initiated by reports and recommenda-
tions of the assistant district managers, which, together with the re-
ports and recommendations of the district manager and such other
information as the home office may require, constitute the basis for
the Employer's action .3
' Section 2 (11) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, provides: The term
`supervisor ' means any individual having authority , in the interests of the Employer, to
bite , 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
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."
2 Some district offices have blanches or subdistuct offices called detached offices in charge
of assistant district managers who report to the district manager.
3 The' Employer 's director of agencies testified that "in the vast majority of instances,
we approve applications on the strength of the assistant district manager 's and district
manager 's recommendation."
JOHN HANCOCK MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 1075
When first appointed, an agent is designated as a junior agent, and
is assigned to an assistant district manager whose duty it is to instruct,
guide, train, and teach him and to introduce him to the policy holders
in his debit. The assistant district manager is required periodically
to report on the progress of the junior agent and to state whether he
recommends advancement to a full agent's status. Upon the basis of
such recommendation, as well as the independent report and recom-
mendation of the district manager, the Employer determines whether
to promote a junior agent to a senior agent.'
When discharging agents, the Employer, as in the case of the hiring
of agents, relies partly upon the reports and recommendations of the
assistant district managers in making its decisions. However, in the
case of the suspension of agents , the record discloses that some assist-
ant district managers have suspended agents on their own authority
and that such personnel action has been upheld by their district
manager.5 It is clear that an assistant district manager may recom-
mend the discharge or suspension of an agent, particularly when, after
the assistant district manager has checked the agents' books and inter-
viewed the policy holders, irregularities in the accounts are discovered.6
In matters relating to the issuance of insurance policies, the lapsing
of policies, the payment of death claims and cash surrender values,
the responsibility of an agent for the collection on a doubtful policy
transferred into the agent's debit, and the creation, building or re-
grouping of debits, the assistant district manager makes reports and
recommendations' which, together with the district manager's reports
and recommendations," are forwarded to the Employer's home office.
On the basis of these reports and such other reports as are deemed
necessary, the home office makes its final decision.
Assistant district managers hold staff meetings of agents assigned
to them. At these meetings, the assistant district -manager transmits
instructions from the district manager as well as information pertain-
' Until a junior agent becomes a senior agent at the end of the year ' s trial period or until
he is given inspection privileges , the assistant district manager must prepare the inspec-
tion report on all policy applications submitted by the junior agent and must recommend
the issuance of such policies
5Itule 91 , page 80 of Employer's "Instruction Book ," gives the district managers author-
ity to suspend agents.
"Assistant district managers regularly check their agents ' books and , where such checks
disclose more than normal ariearages in the debits of the agents , indicating danger of policy
lapse, or improper reporting of collections, the assistant district managers, along with the
agents, personally visit the policy holders
' In all cases of applications for additional weekly premium insurance which , together
with the weekly premium insurance already issued , will aggregate more than $500, the
assistant manager must complete the inspection report
8 Generally , an investigation of an applicant for an ordinary life insurance policy over
$5,000 is made by an independent agency. In some district offices , where the assistant
district manager signs the inspection report on the application , this independent investi-
gation is not required.
1076 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ing to company policy or routine, discusses questions of general in-
terest, or holds a training clinic. Disputes and grievances between
agents, particularly those pertaining to debits and commissions, are
customarily settled on a voluntary basis by the assistant district man-
ager and the agents.9 Agents' vacations are determined by seniority,
but in cases of conflict the assistant district manager resolves the diffi-
culties amicably. Assistant district managers may grant agents time
off, subsequently notifying the district manager. In such cases, it is the
assistant district manager's responsibility to make sure that the agent's
debit is covered either by the agent when he returns, or by another
agent, or by himself.
The record discloses that in practically all collective bargaining
contracts covering insurance agents of the Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, and the
Employer,10 assistant district managers have been excluded from the
units defined therein. This is true of the current contract between
the Employer and its agents. The decisions of this Board involving
life insurance agents have generally excluded such assistant district
managers, or a similar classification designated as "superintendents,"
from the appropriate unit.'1
Upon the basis of the foregoing, including the fact that the assist-
ant district managers in the Employer's district offices are authorized
to make recommend ations which affect the status and earnings of the
agents under them, and that they instruct, train, and direct junior
agents and make recommendations which affect the possibility of
advancement of such junior agents, we find that the Employer's as-
sistant district managers are supervisors within the meaning of the
Act, and, as such, are not employees for whom the Board may now
certify a collective bargaining representative. Accordingly, we find
that no question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer. We shall, therefore, dismiss the
petition.
° Such disputes and grievances, arising from the Employer's rules and business practices,
are specifically exempted from the grievance procedure set up in Article VI in the contract
between the Employer and the agents' union , United Office and Professional Workers Union,
CIO
" These are the three principal companies in the United States engaged in issuing "weekly
premium" types of life insurance policies
11 In Matter of Peoples Life Insurance Company, 46 N. L. R B 1115, the Board certified
a collective bargaining representative for a unit of "superintendents" of a life insurance
company However, the superintendents in that case were clearly supervisors and the only
issue presented to the Board was whether such supervisors were employees under the Act.
We so held. Since that time , by amendment to the Act, supervisors have been specifically
excluded from the definition of "employees " for whom the Board is authorized to certify
a bargaining representative . See Section 2 (11) of the Act, as amended.
JOHN HANCOCK MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY 1077
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and upon the
entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby
orders that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
7987(7-99- vol. 78-69