Puget Sound Power & Light Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 29, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 1825 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

PUGET SOUND POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 1825
and the committee . Under the circumstances , I find that the evidence is insufficient
to support the General Counsel's contention that failure to pay these men for the,
time spent , in neither working nor negotiating with the Company, is an unfair labor
practice . It is not the province of the Board to police every alleged breach of
contract or custom.m
For all of the above reasons it is recommended that the complaint be dismissed
in its entirety, on the ground that the evidence is insufficient.
UMted Telephone Company of the West, 112 NLRB 779-781.
Puget Sound Power & Light Company and Seattle Professional
Engineering Employees Association, affiliated with Engineers
and Scientists of America, Petitioner. Case No. 19-RC-1920.
May 29,1957
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Albert L. Gese, hearing
officer. 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel, [Chairman Leedom and Members Bean and Jenkins].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all professional en-
gineering employees above the rank of junior engineer and junior
distribution engineer, including the surveyor and senior load dis-
patchers. The Employer does not dispute that those employees serv-
ing in an engineering classification are professional employees within
the meaning of Section 2 (12) of the Act, but contends that they are
either supervisors or managerial employees. It also contends that
the surveyor and the senior load dispatchers are not professional em-
ployees, and are, moreover, supervisors. The Intervenor, Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 77, AFL-CIO,
which represents all production, distribution, and clerical employees,
including the two junior engineer classifications, takes no position
with respect to the appropriateness of the unit.'
1 IBEW intervened in order to safeguard its bargaining unit and its contractual interest.
As it has no showing of interest among the employees whom the Petitioner seeks to repre-
sent, we do not accord it a place on the ballot.
117 NLRB No. 248.
423784-57-vol. 117-116
1826 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is a public utility engaged in the generation, trans-
mission, and distribution of electric power, serving an area mainly
in the western part of the State of Washington. Engineers are em-
ployed in the Employer's division of operations and division of power
supply. The great majority are in the former division, assigned
either to the general engineering office at the Employer's main office
at Bellevue, Washington, or to the various field headquarters which
oversee the distribution of power to the Employer's customers. Two
or three engineers are assigned to a power pool in Spokane, Washing-
ton, which coordinates the power supply for the areas served by the
Employer, other Pacific Northwest public utilities, and the Bonneville
Dam Administration. Also assigned to the division of power supply
are a small number of transmission, combustion, and communications
engineers, the surveyor, and the load dispatchers. There are approxi-
mately 50 employees in the unit sought.
The general engineering office at the Employer's central head-
quarters, headed by a supervisor of engineering, is comprised of 5
sections, each consisting of from 3 to 6 professional engineers, 1 or 2
junior engineers, and clerical employees. One of the 5 sections also
includes approximately 15 nonprofessional employees classified as
designers and draftsmen.
The geographic area served by the Employer is divided into 4 di-
visions, each headed by a superintendent and 1 or more assistant
superintendents for the line crews stationed there. An engineering
office is attached to each divisional office. There are also three smaller
areas, each supervised by an assistant superintendent with jurisdiction
over its own line crews. Each of these headquarters has an engineer-
ing office with from 2 to 5 engineers. The smallest geographic sub-
division, of which there are four, is called an auxiliary area , and con-
tains a number of line crews. Each is headed by an engineer classified
as a distribution supervisor. There are no other professional
engineering employees in the auxiliary areas.
Engineering work for all construction projects valued at more than
$5,000 is prepared in the general engineering office. Requests for
design work are received from the field engineers or from other ap-
propriate officials. The requests are assigned by the supervisor of
engineering to the appropriate technical section where it is reassigned
by the engineer in charge to one of his associate or assistant engineers,
who then prepares the necessary work sketches and plans. Their
work is reviewed and approved by the section head. An engineer to
whom a project is assigned may delegate part of the work to another
engineer junior to him in rank and later, in that connection, check
and approve his work.
The general office engineers also coordinate, and give technical
assistance to, the Company's entire engineering program. They pre-
PUGET SOUND POWER & LIGHT COMPANY 1827
pare specifications for equipment to be purchased, and for construction
by independent contractors, and thereafter, check conformity with
specifications upon completion of the contract.
In the field operations, engineers prepare work sketches and draw-
ings for the smaller projects and also furnish technical assistance to
operating and sales personnel- in their areas. The senior engineer in
each field office carries out the administrative function of receiving
work requests from operating personnel and assigning them to the
other engineers. He is responsible for the engineering work in his
area, and checks and reviews work of other engineers assigned to his
office. In the absence of a responsible line official such as an assistant
superintendent, the senior engineer will act in his capacity. In the
auxiliary areas, the distribution supervisor lays out the day-to-day
work of the line crews , although the foreman of each crew is admin-
istratively responsible to an assistant superintendent.
We are satisfied from the foregoing and from the entire record that
the supervisor of engineering, the 5 section heads in the general
engineering office, the 4 head distribution engineers at the division
headquarters, and the 3 senior distribution engineers at the area head-
quarters responsibly direct the engineering and technical work per-
formed within their area of jurisdiction as indicated by their regular
duties of assigning work to other engineers, and that they are there-
fore supervisors within the meaning of the Act. We are also satisfied,
however, that the direction exercised by those engineers who have no
formal responsibility beyond the project specifically assigned to them
is not supervisory even though they have the right to ask for assistance
of a lower ranked engineer.' As for the distribution supervisors in
the auxiliary areas, we find that their relationship to the foremen of
the line crews is primarily that of technical approval of the engineer-
ing aspects of their work.
The Employer contends that the power pool engineers are man-
agerial because its construction program is based on their analysis of
the area's future power needs. We find that the duties and functions
of the power pool engineers are not essentially different from those of
other engineers. The fact that they may make recommendations
which lead to financial outlays by the Employer does not make them
part of management so as to preclude their inclusion in a unit of
professional employees 3
The surveyor, a graduate of a professional engineering school, does
not do engineering work of the caliber performed by other engineers
sought to be included. He heads a field party of up to six assistants
which locates distribution and transmission lines and establishes
property lines. We find that the surveyor's work does not exhibit
9 Sonotone Corporation, 90 NLRB 1236, 1239, Worden-Allen Company, 99 NLRB 410,
412
8 Westsnghoiase Electric Corporation , 113 NLRB 337, 339.
1828 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
the predominantly intellectual and varied character, nor the constant
exercise of discretion and judgment, which the Act requires of pro-
fessional employees. We shall, therefore, exclude him as a non-
professional employee .4
The Petitioner seeks to include two senior load dispatchers who have
professional engineering degrees. They control the generation and
transmission of power to distribution areas. Although their work
requires the exercise of considerable skill, a professional degree is not
a requirement of their classification, and it appears that other dis-
patchers of comparable grade do not possess the same educational
qualifications. We find that the senior load dispatchers are not
professional employees and exclude them.
We find that the following employees constitute an appropriate unit
for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9-
(b) of the Act: All engineers, including those assigned to the power
pool, and distribution supervisors, employed in the Employer's public
utility system with headquarters at Bellevue, Washington, excluding
the surveyor, the senior load dispatchers, junior engineers and junior
distribution engineers, all other employees, the section heads in the
general engineering office, the head distribution engineers, the seniof
distribution engineers, the supervisor of engineering, and all other
supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
4Pacrofic Gas and Electric Company, 98 NLRB No 130 (not repotted in printed vol-
umes of Board Decisions and Orders ) The Board found that surveyors with duties
similar to those performed by the surveyor here , were technical employees
The Jacksonville Journal Company and Jacksonville Newspaper
Guild , Local 134, American Newspaper Guild , AFL-CIO ,1 Peti-
tioner
The Jacksonville Journal Company and Jacksonville Mailers
Union, No. 138, International Mailers Union , Ind.,2 Petitioner.
Cases Nos. 12-RC-2 (formerly 10-RC-3402) and 12-RC-4 (for-
merly 10-RC-3435). May 29,1957
SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND
CERTIFICATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVES
Pursuant to a Decision and Direction of Election issued on Sep-
tember 19, 1956,' in the above consolidated case, elections by secret
1 Hereinafter called the Guild.
2 Hereinafter called the Mailers.
3 116 NLRB 1136.
117 NLRB No. 247.