When is First Line Supv considered Co. vs Union?

Jeff Brown

When is a non-exempt first line supervisor who is a supervisor of 3 non-exempt employees considered a member of mangement vs a member of the union employee group? How is a position identified as management vs union? Is there a distinction made by using FLSA exempt (company) vs non-exempt (union)? If so, how?

Don D

How is it that you have a non-exempt supervisor with three subordinates? If the person is indeed a supervisor with discretionary authority to make independent decisions and he's involved in management activities I don't see why you leave him categorized as non-exempt. If the test allows you to change his status, I don't think he will be considered part of the bargaining unit. On the other hand, even if the test won't change his status and he's more of a shift leader than a supervisor, I don't know what that does to his bargaining unit membership. Perhaps one of our labor law experts will weigh in. Interesting question.

Theresa Gegen TX

Lots of companies have "crew chiefs" who direct the day to day work of a crew, but are really not in management.

Most employers and the Labor Board will look at the true authority of the person -- does the person have the authority to hire and fire employees, does the person have the authority to discipline employees, what type of decisions does the person make regarding the employment of the people they are "supervising", etc. The more authority the person has, the more likely that they are in management or the supervisory ranks, rather than just a co-worker with a little bit of authority to lead a crew.

hrqueen

Whenever we have promoted an employee to supervisory status, that employee had to withdraw from the bargaining unit. I'd be very surprised if any union allowed supervisors as members. The situation you're discribing sounds like a leadperson rather than a supervisor.

Don D

If the assumptions given in the last two posts are accurate, I would think a reasonable objective would be to remove the person from the bargaining unit pool, which would mean redefining the job to give the incumbent enough authority to classify them as exempt. It's not impossible to do. That won't necessarily equate to loyalty to the company as opposed to loyalty to the union; however, at least you won't have to continually dance to union music when dealing with that position.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-16-02 AT 08:28AM (CST)[/font][p]Here is the response one of our attorneys gave me this morning on this subject. It seems to me he is saying the same thing....that the test for NLRA exclusion is practically the same as the test used to determine exemption. In any event, it seems fairly clear that the person should be excluded from the bargaining unit. Here's the atty quote, "The test for coverage/exclusion under the NLRA is not "exempt" status, it is a test for whether one is a supervisor under the standards of the NLRA (power to hire, fire, discipline or to effectively recommend doing these things, power to direct the work of others, independent authority in the job, etc.). Simply making a position exempt does not necessarily mean the person is excluded from coverage under the NLRA."

Given what you cited in your private message to me, I think this person is certainly not within the bargaining unit, based on job duties. For the sake of interest, I will also post your private message here:

The FLS is the Storeroom Supv with 3 Material Clerks working for her.
>She is the union president and one of the clerks is the sec/tres. She
>performs annual appraisals and participates in the hiring and
>disciplining of employees. She is responsible for the Computerized
>stock control system and her work is at least 85% different than her
>subordinates'. She has extensive discretion and judgment as to what is
>stocked in the wharehouse to support the Facilities Dept.
>
>If the position is made exempt can we "force her" to become a "company
>person"? I could see the position going either way.
>
>The question still remains, is an exempt position automatically
>considered to be a "company" position and can I tell her she will have
>to get out of the union?