Mount St. Joseph's Home for Girls

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 25, 1977

229 N.L.R.B. 251 (N.L.R.B. 1977)

MOUNT ST. JOSEPH'S HOME FOR GIRLS
Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum of San Francisco,
d/b/a Mount St. Joseph's Home for Girls and
Social Services Union, Local 535, SEIU, AFL-
CIO, Petitioner. Case 20-RC-13796
April 25, 1977
DECISION AND ORDER
BY CHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND MURPHY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Miguel A.
Gonzalez. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended,
and by direction of the Regional Director for Region
20, this case was transferred to the National Labor
Relations Board for decision. Thereafter, the Em-
ployer and the Petitioner filed briefs.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board
finds:
1. The Employer is a nonprofit corporation which
operates a licensed child welfare facility for the
residential care of neglected, dependent, or abused
children ranging in age from 6 to 18. The facilities
involved herein consist of six group homes, five of
which are used to provide long-term shelter while the
sixth, Shalom House, is an emergency care shelter.
To carry on its function, the Employer employs at
each home, including Shalom House, senior counsel-
ors, child care workers, housekeepers, and cooks. It
also employed, up until September 1, 1976, five lay
social workers whose function it was to work with the
child care workers.
The Employer contends that its operations are so
intimately connected with the operations of the
county of San Francisco, an exempt employer under
the Act, that the Board should find that the
Employer shares the county's exemption from the
Act's provisions. The Employer further contends
that, inasmuch as its activities are entirely local and
have virtually no impact on commerce, the Board
lacks jurisdiction over it.
The exempt status issue and the jurisdictional issue
raised here by the Employer were previously raised
'The decision in that case was issued on December 17, 1976, after the
hearing in this case closed.
229 NLRB No. 42
by it and answered by the Board in Roman Catholic
Orphan Asylum of San Francisco, d/b/a Mount St.
Joseph's Home for Girls, 227 NLRB 404 (1976). In
that case 1 we held that the Employer's operations are
not so interconnected with the county's operations as
to entitle the Employer to share in the county's
exemption from the Act's jurisdiction. Furthermore,
we found that, inasmuch as the Employer's gross
annual revenues far exceeded the $250,000 discre-
tionary jurisdictional standard we have established
for these types of institutions, it met our discretion-
ary jurisdictional standards. Based on our decision in
Mount St. Joseph's Home for Girls, supra, we shall
assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. For the reasons set forth below, we find that no
question affecting commerce exists concerning the
representation of certain employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and
(7) of the Act.
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting
of all social workers employed by the Employer at its
several homes, excluding supervisors. The parties
stipulated that the Employer's intake supervisor at
Shalom House, Mr. Mayberry, who also performs
social work, is a supervisor within the meaning of the
Act and should be excluded from any unit or units
found appropriate. The parties also stipulated that
Sister Gloria Briganti, who serves as a social worker
part of her working time, should be excluded as a
managerial employee or one closely allied with
management.
Sometime prior to August 20, 1976, the Employer
decided to eliminate all part-time social worker
positions and to retain only the full-time positions in
the unit sought. At that time, there were three part-
time and two full-time social workers employed by
the Employer.
By October 8, 1976, the decision to eliminate the
part-time social worker positions had been fully
implemented and the Employer had only two full-
time social workers in its employ. One week before
the hearing, one of these social workers voluntarily
resigned. At that time the Employer decided that it
would not replace the social worker who resigned but
would operate with only one full-time social worker
and possibly hire a staff psychologist to handle the
more pressing needs of the residents. Sister Betty
Marie Dunke, assistant administrator of the Employ-
er, testified that this decision was based on the
Employer's desire to establish a child-social worker
ratio comparable to that of other similar child care
institutions, which is 1 social worker for every 12 to
251
DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
16 girls. This ratio is achieved by the use of one full-
time social worker and the part-time social work
functions performed by Intake Supervisor Mayberry
and Sister Gloria Briganti. 2
Inasmuch as it appears that the Employer now
employes only one social worker in the unit sought
and does not intend to employ more than one such
social worker at a given time, and, as it is contrary to
Board policy to certify a single person unit,3 we shall
decline to direct an election in this case. Accordingly,
we shall dismiss the petition.
2 The record shows that the total number of girls enrolled in the
Employer's regular program is 32.
3 Crescendo Broadcasting, Inc., WATV Radio, 217 NLRB 697 (1975),
Sonoma-Marin Publishing Company, 172 NLRB 625 (1968).
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the instant petition be,
and it hereby is, dismissed.
MEMBER MURPHY, concurring in part and dissenting
in part:
While I agree with my colleagues' dismissal of the
instant petition, I disagree with their assertion of
jurisdiction over the Employer. As stated in my
dissent in the earlier Decision involving this Employ-
er, 4 I would not assert jurisdiction over charitable,
nonprofit, noncommercial institutions such as the
Employer. Accordingly, I would find it unnecessary
to reach the unit question presented.
4 Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum of San Francisco, d/b/a Mount St.
Joseph's Homefor Girls, supra.
252