Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 5, 1975

217 N.L.R.B. 797 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF PEACE 797
Sisters of St . Joseph of Peace ' and Retail Clerks Lo-
cal No . 240, Chartered by Retail Clerks Interna-
tional Association, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case
19-RC-7252
- May 5, 1975
DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act,,as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer Henrik M. Sortun of
the National Labor Relations Board. On November 21,
1974, the Acting Regional Director for Region 19 is-
sued a Decision and Direction of Election in the above-
entitled proceeding, in which he found that the Em-
ployer's business office clerical employees constitute a
unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.
Thereafter, the Employer, in accordance with Section
102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, filed a request
for review of the decision of the Acting Regional Direc-
tor on the ground that he erred in directing an election
in a unit of business office clericals.
On January 16, 1975, the Board, having determined
that this and a number of other cases in the health care
industry presented issues of importance in the adminis-
tration of the National Labor Relations Act, as
amended, scheduled oral argument in several of the
cases, including this one, as well as oral argument on
the general question of the composition of appropriate
bargaining units in the health care industry. Member
Kennedy dissented from the grant of oral argument.
Oral arguments were heard on January 27, 1975, Briefs
amici curiae were filed by interested parties and have
been duly considered by the Board.
By telegraphic order dated February 4, 1975, the
Board granted the Employer's request for review and
stayed the election pending decision on review.
The Board has considered the entire record in this
case, with respect to the issues under review, including
the brief and statement on review and the amici briefs,
and makes the following findings:
The Employer, a nonprofit Washington corporation,
operates several schools, a retirement center, a provin-
cial convent, and several health care facilities, includ-
ing a nonprofit hospital in Bellingham, Washington,
known as St. Joseph Hospital. The employees in the
I Referred to by the Employer in correspondence with the Board subse-
quent to the hearing at St Joseph Hospital However, at the hearing the
caption was amended from St Joseph Hospital to Sisters of St Joseph of
Peace, as reflected above, pursuant to a statement on the record by the
Employer's counsel Accordingly, we do not believe it appropriate to grant
the Employer's subsequent, ex parte requests for further caption change
unit sought herein work at St. Joseph Hospital, which
provides 103 beds for in-patients and has approxi-
mately 275 employees, including approximately 100
registered nurses or licensed practical nurses currently
represented by two labor organizations other than the
Petitioner, and approximately 140 employees, exclud-
ing supervisors, currently unrepresented.
The Petitioner sought to represent a unit consisting
of all business office employees, medical records em-
ployees, and ward clerks at St. Joseph Hospital, but is
willing to participate in an election involving any less
comprehensive unit found appropriate. The Employer
originally contended that the only appropriate unit was
a hospitalwide unit including all unrepresented clerical
and nonclerical employees at St. Joseph Hospital.
The Acting Regional Director found appropriate a
unit of business office clerical employees only, includ-
ing the switchboard operators, admitting employees,
patient billing employees, credit department em-
ployees, accounts payable clerks, business office cash-
iers, and electronic data processing (EDP) coordina-
tors. The Acting Regional Director based this finding,
on grounds, inter alia, that employees in the aforemen-
tioned classifications are primarily engaged in typical
office clerical duties, are subject to some degree of com-
mon supervision apparently not shared by any other
employees in the hospital, and spend most or all of their
working time in the business office area. The Acting
Regional Director excluded from the unit the medical
records employees and the ward clerks.
The Employer bases its request for review on the
absence of Board precedent on the issue of appropriate
bargaining units in nonprofit hospitals and on the need
for reconsideration of the policy enunciated by the Act-
ing Regional Director regarding the separation of cleri-
cal and nonclerical employees in nonprofit hospitals.
Arguing that the petitioned-for unit is too small and
would result in severe fragmentation of units in the
health care industry, the Employer attacks the Acting
Regional Director's carving out an even smaller unit of
business office employees and asserts that there is no
basis for excluding medical records employees and
ward clerks.
The Board has considered the entire record with
respect to the issues on review2 and has carefully
2 The Employer at the hearing reserved its position as to the appropriate-
ness of the single-plant unit as opposed to a multiplant unit comprised of all
or several of the Employer 's health care facilities . However, the Employer's
request for review does not challenge the Acting Regional Director's finding
that the single hospital unit is appropriate.
No party has requested review of the Acting Regional Director's exclu-
sion of pharmacy and radiology clerks, the purchasing assistant, diet aides,
the personnel department's part-time secretary, and the personnel depart-
ment's part-time health nurse; we adopt the Acting Regional Director's
findings as to these individuals. Likewise, as the Employer has not requested
review of the Acting Regional Director's determinations concerning the
supervisory status of certain individuals , we adopt his conclusions excluding
from the unit as supervisors the business office manager and the patient
(Continued)
217 NLRB No. 135
798 _, DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
weighed the considerations concerning the units appro-
priate in the health care industry and the necessity of
preventing the proliferation of units therein. We agree
with the Acting Regional Director and adopt his con-
clusions. Like him, and for the reasons set forth in
greater detail in Mercy Hospitals, we find that a sepa-
rate unit of business office clerical employees in the
health care industry is appropriate.'
We further agree with the Acting Regional Direc-
tor's exclusion of the medical records employees and
ward clerks. Although the employees engage in clerical
functions, they work with different people, on different
types of records, and for different immediate objectives.
Further, they are not located in the central business
office complex, do not share common supervision with
the business office employees, and do not appear to
share close working relationships sufficient to establish
a significant community of interest with the business
office clerical employees.
Rather, the record reveals that the medical records
employees construct medical records to assist physi-
cians, with whom they work closely, in caring for pa-
tients. Those employees are normally hired based on
certain nonclerical qualifications, primarily association
with medical terminology obtained through schooling
or experience. Moreover, only one of the three medical
record areas is located near the central business office;
even the medical records employees in that office are
gone from the area about half of the time. Similarly, the
ward clerks spend approximately 90 to 95 percent of
their time at or near the nursing stations in the patient
care areas and are supervised by nursing personnel,
having little personal contact with the business office
employees. In these circumstances, we have determined
that the medical records employees and the ward clerks
do not share a community of interest with the business
office clerical employees, but rather with a broader unit
of service and maintenance employees!
Accordingly, we shall direct an election in the fol-
lowing unit of employees which we find to be appropri-
ate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All full-time and regular part-time business of-
fice clerical employees, including switchboard op-
erators, admitting employees, patient billing em-
ployees, credit department employees, accounts
payable clerks, business office cashiers, and ADP
coordinators employed by the Employer in the
Employer's central business office area at St. Jo-
seph Hospital in Bellingham, Washington, but ex-
eluding all other employees, confidential em-
ployees, professional employees, and guards and
supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote omit-
ted from publication.]
accounts director, and allowing the "communications supervisor" and the
admitting office registrar to vote subject to challenge
3 Mercy Hospitals of Sacramento, Inc, 217 NLRB 765 (1975). See
also St Catherine's Hospital of Dominican Sisters of Kenosha, Wis., 217
NLRB 787 (1975)
4, St Catherine's Hospital, supra See also North Dade Hospital, Inc.,
etc, 210 NLRB 588 (1974); The Swanholm, an operation of The Martin
Luther Foundation, Inc, 186 NLRB 45, 46-47 (1970)