St. Peter's School

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 22, 1975

220 N.L.R.B. 480 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

480 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
St. Peter's School and League of Licensed Practical
Nurses, District 1199 , National Union of Hospital
and Health Care Employees , RWDSU, AFL-CIO,
Petitioner. Case 2-RC-16719
September 22, 1975
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MURPHY AND MEMBERS JENKINS
AND PENELLO
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Melinda
Sweet of the National Labor Relations Board. Fol-
lowing the hearing, and prusuant to Section 102.67 of
the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Re-
gulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as
amended, and by direction of the Regional Director
for Region 2, this case was transferred to the Nation-
al Labor Relations Board for decision. The Employer
filed a brief.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au-
thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul-
ings made at the hearing and finds that they are free
from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
brief filed herein, the Board finds:
1. The Employer, a nonprofit corporation orga-
nized under the laws of New York State, is engaged
in the operation of a home for about 150 dependent
and neglected children, most of whom are emotional-
ly disturbed.
During 1974 the Employer's gross income was ap-
proximately $2,000,000 received from the following
sources: $1,500,000-New York City; $250,000-
Medicaid; $30,000-Westchester County, New
York; $25,000-contributions and dividends. The
Employer spent more than $50,000 for goods and
services from companies located outside the State of
New York.
The parties agree that the Employer meets the ba-
sic $50,000 inflow standards and similarly meets the
retail standards of $500,000 gross revenue, that the
Employer affects commerce, and for that reason the
Board should assert jurisdiction. We so find.
The record establishes that the Employer provides
residential care and treatment for 155 children rang-
ing in age from 6 to 16 years. Children are referred to
St. Peter's by the New York City Department of So-
cial Services, the Westchester County Department of
Social Services, or the Family Court of New York
because they have been either neglected, mistreated,
or abandoned by their parents and can no longer
remain in the family home. Virtually all of the chil-
dren have some form of physical disability or emo-
tional disturbance and require treatment ranging
from group therapy or individual counseling to medi-
cation. Thirty-five children receive psychotropic
drugs three or four times daily and an unspecified
number of other children are under medication for
hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and/or convul-
sions.
To provide the requisite medical and psychiatric
treatment the school staff includes a medical director
who is a licensed pediatrician, three full-time regis-
tered nurses , one part-time registered nurse , seven li-
censed practical nurses, two part-time psychiatrists,
two part-time psychologists, and a psychiatric nurse.
The school is also responsible for providing for all
the medical and dental needs of its residents and to
this end maintains an infirmary on the premises
which is capable of caring for as many as 12 children
at a time. It thus appears, as stated by the Employer
in its brief to the Board, that "[a] basic goal of the
institution is to cure the children's psychological and
emotional trauma." In this respect St. Peter's is dis-
tinguishable from the custodial facility involved in
Ming Quong Children's Center, 210 NLRB 899 (1974),
whose primary purpose was to provide housing and
normal care to troubled children, and which did not
provide any medical care. Accordingly, we find that
St. Peter's unlike Ming Quong, is a health care institu-
tion, and that, therefore, the rationale of that deci-
sion, i.e., that the Board will not assert jurisdiction
over a nonprofit institution whose activities are non-
commercial in nature and are intimately connected
with the charitable purposes of the institution, is not,
in light of the recent health care amendments to the
Act, applicable here.' Accordingly, we find, upon the
basis of the record as a whole, that the Employer is
engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act
and it will effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert
jurisdiction herein.'
i Cf. Lutheran Association for Retarded Children, a California Non-profit
Corporation d/b/a Home of Guiding Hands, 218 NLRB No. 195 (1975) Al-
though Chairman Murphy dissented in that case she concurs in the asser-
tion of j urisdiction herein inasmuch as she agrees that St. Peter 's School is a
"health care institution " within the meaning of Section 2(14) of the Act.
2 In addition we note that twice prior to the Board 's decision in Ming
Quong Children's Center, supra, the Regional Director for Region 2 found
that this Employer was engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act
(Cases 2-RC-16212 and 2-RC-16257 [19731, not printed in NLRB vol-
umes). Indeed , in those cases Petitioner herein was certified as the represen-
tative of two bargaining units, one of professional social workers and the
other of several categories of service and maintenance workers If the Board
were to decline to assert jurisdiction in this proceeding, Petitioner would
thus be certified by this Board in the two existing units but would be left to
state law procedures to seek certification for the unit sought herein . We find
such a result anomolous and assert jurisdiction herein for this further rea-
son.
220 NLRB No. 82
ST PETER'S SCHOOL
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization which
claims to represent certain employees of the Employ-
er.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of employees of the Employer
within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and
(7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all
full-time and regular part-time practical nurses em-
ployed by the Employer at St. Peter's School, Peeks-
kill, New York, excluding all other employees,
guards, watchmen , and supervisors as defined in the
Act. The Employer stipulated that the requested unit
is appropriate. Accordingly, upon the entire record
and in view of the parties ' agreement as to the appro-
priateness of the unit , we shall direct an election
among employees in the following unit which we find
to be appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
481
gaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the
Act:
All full-time and regular part-time licensed prac-
tical nurses employed by the Employer at St.
Peter's School, Peekskill, New York, excluding
all other employees, professional employees,
guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in
the Act.
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote omit-
ted from publication.]
MEMBER JENKINS, concurring:
I agree that the Board should assert jurisdiction
herein. In doing so, I regard it as unnecessary to de-
termine whether or not the Employer is a health care
facility and also find it unnecessary to distinguish
Ming Quong, because that case was decided prior to
the health care facility amendments to the Act.