Can supervisor be a member of bargaining unit?
HCA
72 Posts
We have an administrator who directly supervises a sub-department (detention center)of about 5-10 employees (detention officers). He RARELY does the work of a detention officer (90-10 split) and almost always does admin duties including budgeting, scheduling, and discipline. His duty is to run the facility. I don't believe he should be a member of the unit. The labor rep argues he is because he doesn't directly discipline the employees, the sheriff does. The sheriff only looks over all written discipline prior to delivery because the administrator is a doof and we don't trust him! This isn't unusual as I (as personnel officer) look over many written warnings prior to the supervisor issuing them. The administrator is, however, in charge of discipline and is authorized to give verbal warnings without prior consultation with the sheriff. How can I get him out of the unit?? Should I care?
Comments
If public sector, you should check your state's employee relations statutes for state and local government employees or your local governmental ordinances establishing collective bargaining in your jurisdiction (NLRA is not applicable to governmental jurisdictions).
In our governmental juridsiction, supervisory positions are in bargaining units separate from the line positions they supervise. And they do have the ability to issue low level disciplinary actions and make recommendations on indivdiuals to be hired or fired; they can approve time offo and rate peformance. They may have other authority to expend funds (under limited or specified conditions).
If private sector, the National Labor Relaitons Act doesn't auomatically exclude the ability of employees functioning in a "supervisory" capacity to form into bargaining units in accordance with the processes set by the law. To be excluded under NLRA from the right of collective bargaining as a supervisor, the individual has to exercise independent judgement in the exericse of various areas of responsibility, including the "directing" of others. So it depends on the degree of authorty and amount of responsibility a superivsor has to say whether or not he or she has a right to organize with other "superivsors" in the company into a bargaining unit to negotiate wages, hours and working conditions with their employer.
The actual definition as found in the NLRA for superivsor is:
"...any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment."
I suppose when it comes to labor rules, anything goes, and most people are shocked. ARGH.
Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]
Under our laws, only about 2% of a local jurisdiction's work force may be deemed as not subject to the right to collectively bargain. Most of these are in middle and upper managements and some senior staff people. Many are also senior and management HR staff.