Sutter West Bay Hospital d/b/a California Pacific Medical Center

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 1, 2012

20-UC-076774 (N.L.R.B. Nov. 1, 2012)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
SUTTER WEST BAY HOSPITAL d/b/a
CALIFORNIA PACIFIC MEDICAL CENTER
Employer
and Case 20-UC-076774
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING
ENGINEERS, STATIONARY ENGINEERS
LOCAL NO. 39
Union
ORDER
The Employer’s and Union’s Requests for Review of the Regional Director’s Decision and
Order are denied as they raise no substantial issues warranting review.1
MARK GASTON PEARCE, CHAIRMAN
BRIAN E. HAYES, MEMBER
RICHARD F. GRIFFIN, JR., MEMBER
Dated, Washington, D.C., November 1, 2012

1 In its Request for Review, the Union contends that the Regional Director erred in finding
that the chief engineers have the authority to effectively recommend hiring and in failing to find that
they do so exercising independent judgment. In support of its first contention, the Union cites
testimony by some witnesses indicating that the chief engineers themselves make the final hiring
decisions. We find it immaterial whether the chief engineers’ role in hiring is characterized as
effectively recommending hiring or as having the authority to hire; under Sec. 2(11), either is
sufficient to establish supervisory authority, provided that such authority is exercised in the interest
of the employer using independent judgment. See, e.g., Fred Meyer Alaska, Inc., 334 NLRB 646,
649 (2001) (finding that supervisors exercised independent judgment in hiring or effectively
recommending the hiring of employees).
Here, the undisputed facts establish that the chief engineers are accorded complete discretion
in selecting who will be hired, based on their own assessments of what skills are needed and
whether the applicants have the appropriate qualifications. Thus, they decide whom to interview
according to their own criteria, conduct interviews by asking questions they deem relevant, assess
the applicants’ skills and qualifications based on their own requirements and tests, and make their
own hiring selections. The evidence before us indicates that in some instances the chief engineer
makes a hiring recommendation, which the director routinely accepts, and in some instances makes
the hiring decision himself. This degree of control over the hiring of engineers necessarily involves
the exercise of independent judgment and establishes that the chief engineers are statutory
supervisors based on their role in hiring. See id.; Union Square Theater Management, 326 NLRB
70, 71 (1998).