Public Service Electric and Gas Co. of New Jersey

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 7, 1949

81 N.L.R.B. 1191 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANY OF NEW
JERSEY, EMPLOYER and UTILITY Co-WoRKERs' ASSOCIATION,
PETITIONER
Case No. 7-RC-787.Decided March 7, 1949
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 the undersigned Board
Members.* The Intervenors' 1 motion to dismiss the petition on
the ground that the unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate is
-denied for reasons hereinafter stated.
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 organizations named below claim to represent certain
-employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer, within the meaning of
.Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a unit composed of all commercial, sales,
and building service employees in all the commercial offices of the
Employer, excluding specialist personnel, confidential employees and
supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer agrees that the
unit sought is an appropriate one. The Intervenors' primary position
is that the employees of each of the 23 commercial offices constitute
separate appropriate units.
* Houston , Reynolds , and Murdock.
1 Office Employees International Union , Locals 91 , 98, and 103 , A. F. L.
81 N. L. R. B., No. 185.
1191
1192 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer's Operations
The Employer is a public utility engaged primarily in producing
and supplying electricity and gas for light, heat, and power for resi-
dential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses in New Jersey.
It also sells electric and gas appliances as part of its program to
promote electric and gas sales.
The Employer carries on its operations without competition from
any other utility in an area approximately 100 miles in length and
20 miles in width, running northeast to southwest through the central
portion of the State.
Only the Employer's commercial and sales employees, numbering
about 1,846, and including such job classifications as meter-readers,
bill deliverers, collection representatives, service representatives, ste-
nographers, typists, cashiers, clerks, and messengers are involved in
this proceeding.
The Employer's home office is located in Newark, New Jersey.
Under the over-all supervision of the president of the organization,
there are several vice-presidents in charge of various phases of the-
manufacture and transmission of the gas and electricity produced, and
a vice-president in charge of finance. Under the vice-president in
charge of finance is a vice-president in charge of sales whose responsi-
bilities include the operation of the Employer's commercial depart-
ment. The head of this department is the general commercial man-
ager. This executive has under his supervision 6 divisional commer-
cial offices with a commercial manager in charge of each. Below these
divisional offices are the 23 district commercial offices whose function
it is to service customer accounts, handle customer complaints and
grievances and sell the electrical appliances which the company mar-
kets. There is a commercial manager in charge of each of the 23
offices. Each district commercial office has various departments, such
as appliance sales, collections, and meter reading, service, etc., with
a staff headed by a department supervisor.
The commercial office managers are authorized to hire necessary
personnel, but applicants for employment must conform to certain
general rules laid down by the home office. All applicants must take
their physical examination at points designated by the home office
and in accordance with general office policy must be bonded. All sales
employees must first be interviewed by representatives of the home
office and given aptitude tests before hiring. Personnel records are
maintained at both the home office and the local office where the em-
ployee works. Job classifications are uniform throughout the
Employer's system and skills required in like jobs are the same.
Salary progressions in particular jobs are the same and the promotion
PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANY OF N. J. 1193
system is uniform. The nature of the work done by each job category
is substantially the same in all the offices. Transfers are infrequent
and only 12 such transfers occurred in the past year, including several
at the request of the employee transferred. The employees' pay
checks are audited and signed in Newark and then mailed to the com-
mercial office, where they are distributed to the employees. All offices
are serviced by common accounting, display, finance, legal, engineer-
ing, and advertising departments located at the Newark home office.
All major repairs, not of an emergency nature, and purchases of equip-
ment must be authorized by and coordinated through the home office
at Newark and office reports, records, and procedure must follow the
lines prescribed by the central office.
Through weekly meetings in Newark, detailed written operating
instructions, and constant visits to field offices by the central office
management, close control is maintained over the commercial office
management. Most of the detailed regulations concerning personnel
policy are formulated in Newark. These detailed provisions con-
cern wages, hours, age limits for employment, educational and physi-
cal qualifications, vacations, retirement, pensions, causes for discharge,
welfare benefits, and even such matters as smoking, tardiness, time
off, and cashing of checks.
Bargaining history
The commercial and sales employees were unorganized prior to
1943. In June 1943 the Petitioner entered into its first collective
bargaining agreement with the Employer, and from that time on ne-
gotiated a series of such agreements with the Employer the most recent
of which was dated November 1, 1947, and expired October 31, 1948.
This agreement covered all commercial and sales employees in 15 of
the Employer's 23 offices. The Intervenors entered into their first
collective bargaining agreements with the Employer in April 1944.
These and the subsequent agreements were separate contracts which
covered the employees in each of 4 of the Employer's commercial and
sales offices. The Intervenors' most recent contracts also expired Octo-
ber 31, 1948. The 4 remaining commercial offices have no collective
bargaining history.
The collective bargaining for the employees of the commercial of-
fice is conducted at the Employer's home office regardless of whether
the Petitioner or the Intervenors is the collective bargaining agent and
irrespective of which of the individual offices is involved. The Pe-
titioner has one committee which bargains for all of the 15 offices it
represents; one contract covers all 15 offices. The Intervenors have
a similar committee which bargains for all 4 offices they represent,
1194 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
though 4 separate contracts are signed. All contracts of the Em-
ployer, whether with the Petitioner or the Intervenors, have identical
provisions concerning wages and hours and conditions of employment.
The Intervenors contend that in view of this bargaining pattern,
the system-wide unit sought by the Petitioner is inappropriate. In
an alternative position the Intervenors contend that in any event the
past bargaining pattern should not be disturbed without first afford-
ing the employees in the commercial offices that the Petitioner seeks
to add to the unit it has represented an opportunity to express their
preference in separate elections. We do not agree with either of these
contentions. As we have frequently held, system-wide units are the
most appropriate bargaining units for employees of public utilities.2
This is particularly true where, as here, the Employer's operations are
highly integrated and interdependent in character.3 We conclude,
therefore, that the factors in support of a system-wide unit for the
Employer's employees outweigh the bargaining history on a less com-
prehensive basis.
Disputed categories
The remaining question is whether two classes of supervisory em-
ployees, supervisors of service and supervisors of collection and meter
reading, in district commercial offices servicing from 12,500 to 50,000
customer accounts, are to be included within the proposed appropriate
unit. There are 10 such offices of this size. The Petitioner and In-
tervenor contend that these individuals are not supervisors and should
therefore be included, while the Employer contends that they are
supervisors under the Act, as amended.
Supervisor of Service
The supervisor of service is in charge of from four to six em-
ployees in the following categories : Service representative, field serv-
ice representative, and stenographer typist-clerk. Though this super-
visor has no authority to hire or discharge employees, he possesses the
power effectively to recommend transfers in and out of his group as
well as the discharge of employees in his group. He also has respon-
sibility and authority to recommend pay increases, discipline em-
ployees, and enforce rules of management. The supervisor of service
devotes "a large percentage of time" doing the same type of work
that the other people under him do.
2 See Matter of Niagara Hudson Power Corporation , 79 N. L. R. B. 1115, and cases cited
therein.
2 Ibid.
PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANY OF N. J . 1195-
Supervisor of collection
The supervisor of collection and meter reading in this size office
has in his group approximately 12 to 30 employees in the following
job categories : Special collection representative, collection office rep-
resentative, collection representative, bill deliverer, and collection and
meter reading clerk. Substantially less than one-half of his time is
spent on tasks essentially similar to those performed by the employees
under him. He possesses substantially the same authority as the su-
pervisor of service in connection with recommending hiring, transfers,
discharges, and disciplining of the employees in his group. In the
processing of grievances under past union contracts, the supervisor
of collection and meter reading in this size office represents manage-
ment in the first stage where the union is represented by the shop
steward.
Upon the basis of the foregoing facts, we believe that the super-
visors of service and the supervisors of collection and meter reading
are supervisors as defined in the Act, as amended, and we shall ex-
clude them from the unit hereinafter found appropriate.4
We find that all commercial, sales, and building service employees
of all the commercial offices of the Employer excluding specialist per-
sonnel, confidential employees, supervisors of service, supervisors of
collection and meter reading, and any other supervisors as defined in
the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 5
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election
by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction
and supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which
this case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of Na-
tional Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as
amended, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in
paragraph numbered 4, above, who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction of Elec-
tion, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
{ See Matter of Ohio Power Company, 80 N. L . R. B. 1334 ; Cf. Matter of Foster
Wheeler Corporation, 79 N. L . R. B. 1062.
s Any participant in the election directed herein may upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof- by, the Regional Director , have its-name removed from the ballot.
1196 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 reinstatement, to determine whether they desire to be repre-
sented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Utility Co-Workers'
Association or by the Office Employees International Union, Locals
Nos. 91, 98 and 103, A. F. L., or by neither.