GCA Services Group, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 16, 2011

28-CA-023513 (N.L.R.B. Dec. 16, 2011)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
GCA SERVICES GROUP, INC.
and Cases 28-CA-23513
28-CA-62481
UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL
WORKERS UNION LOCAL 99, AFL-CIO
DECISION AND ORDER
Statement of the Cases
On October 13, 2011, GCA Services Group, Inc., (the Respondent), United Food
and Commercial Workers Union Local 99, AFL-CIO, (the Charging Party Union), and
the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board entered into a Formal
Settlement Stipulation, subject to the Board’s approval, providing for the entry of a
consent order by the Board and a consent judgment by any appropriate United States
Court of Appeals. The parties waived all further and other proceedings before the
Board to which they may be entitled under the National Labor Relations Act, as
amended, and the Board’s Rules and Regulations, and the Respondent waived its right
to contest the entry of a consent judgment or to receive further notice of the application
therefor.
The Formal Settlement Stipulation is approved retroactive to the date of its
execution and made a part of the record, and the proceeding is transferred to and
continued before the Board in Washington, D.C., for the entry of a Decision and Order
pursuant to the provisions of the Formal Settlement Stipulation.
Based on the Formal Settlement Stipulation and the entire record, the Board
makes the following:
Findings of Fact
1. The Employer’s business
The Respondent is a Delaware corporation with an office and place of business
in Mesa, Arizona (the Respondent’s facility). It is engaged in the janitorial and facilities
maintenance industry and provides services to the City of Phoenix at the terminals and
rental car center of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona (the
Respondent’s jobsite).
In conducting its business operations at the Respondent’s jobsite during the one-
year period ending May 17, 2011, the Respondent derived gross revenues in excess of
$500,000.
2
In conducting its business operations at the Respondent’s jobsite during the one-
year period ending May 17, 2011, the Respondent purchased and received goods
valued in excess of $50,000 directly from outside the State of Arizona.
The Respondent is now, and has been at all material times, an employer
engaged in commerce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
2. The labor organization involved
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 99, AFL-CIO, is now, and has
been at all material times, a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the
Act.
ORDER
Based on the above findings of fact, the Formal Settlement Stipulation, and the
entire record and pursuant to Section 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as
amended, the National Labor Relations Board orders that:
The Respondent, GCA Services Group, Inc., its officers, agents, successors,
and assigns shall
1. Cease and desist at the Respondent’s facility and the Respondent’s jobsite
from:
(a) Maintaining and enforcing the following rules in its Employees’ Handbook
for Hourly Employees:
(1) At pages 5 and 6:
You are required to read, understand, and comply with all
provisions of the handbook. Any questions concerning the written
material should be discussed with your supervisor or Human
Resources Department.
This handbook is the exclusive property of GCA and is to be used
for internal business purposes only. The contents of this handbook
should not be distributed or disclosed to anyone outside of GCA.
(2) At page 23:
No Solicitation and No Distribution
Because of the need to maintain an atmosphere conducive to our
goals of high quality service and employee productivity, the
3
Company has adopted regulations with regard to solicitations and
distributions on Company property.
Non-employees are not allowed to solicit or distribute materials for
donations on Company property, nor are they allowed to solicit
employees or the public for the purpose of urging or encouraging
them to purchase any items.
You, as an employee, are not permitted to encourage or solicit
membership in fraternal, civic, religious, or other organizations on
work time or in work areas.
(3) At page 24:
Loitering
To prevent interruption of the work schedules of others, you will be
expected to leave the premises immediately following the
completion of your working hours. However, you must not leave
your work-station before your shift ends without the permission of
your supervisor. The practice of having children or other members
of your family or friends waiting for you at the jobsite or areas other
than public waiting rooms is against Company policy.
(b) Detaining and interrogating employees about their union membership,
activities, and sympathies or the union membership, activities and
sympathies of other employees.
(c) Promulgating or enforcing unlawful rules that prohibit employees from
engaging in concerted activities, distributing union literature, speaking
about the union, or speaking with union representatives.
(d) Creating the impression among its employees by any means that their
union and concerted activities are under surveillance.
(e) Engaging in any form of surveillance of its employees to discover their
union and concerted activities.
(f) Soliciting complaints and grievances in any manner from its employees
and making promises to remedy its employees’ complaints and
grievances if its employees refrain from supporting United Food and
Commercial Workers Union, Local 99 (the Union).
(g) Promising or announcing to its employees improved pay or benefits in
order to dissuade its employees from supporting the Union.
4
(h) Threatening its employees that it will not discuss with or grant its
employees pay raises or improved benefits until they cease support for
and activities on behalf of the Union.
(i) Attributing the Respondent’s failure and inability to grant pay raises or
improved benefits to its employees’ support for and activities on behalf of
the Union or because they engage in union activities.
(j) Informing its employees that it would be futile to support the Union.
(k) Threatening its employees that it will not bargain in good faith with the
Union if its employees select the Union as their bargaining
representative.
(l) Threatening its employees by any means with a loss of employment,
denial of promotions, discipline, or other reprisals if they speak with
Union representatives or join, support or engage in activities on behalf of
the Union.
(m) Unlawfully disparaging the Union in order to dissuade its employees
from supporting the Union.
(n) Threatening its employees by inviting them to quit their employment
because of their Union activities or by asking them about being
discharged by former employers.
(o) Promising or granting its employees improved wages, hours, and other
terms and conditions of employment through the creation and institution
of its certified trainer position.
(p) Promising or granting its employees improved pay and benefits through
the institution of its safety bingo program.
(q) Maintaining a rule that prohibits its employees from discussing their
wages with fellow employees and others.
(r) Promising or offering its employees wage increases or promotions,
including promotions to the positions of supervisor, certified trainer, lead,
or other supervisory or higher-paid positions to dissuade its employees
from engaging in union and concerted activities.
(s) Offering to or threatening its employees with transfers and promotions to
isolate employees from fellow employees for the purpose of interfering
with their union and concerted activities.
5
(t) Threatening its employees by unlawfully threatening Union
representatives in the presence of employees that they are trespassing
while at or in the vicinity of the Respondent’s facilities.
(u) Threatening its employees by summoning the police to the vicinity of the
Respondent’s facilities during or because employees engaged in lawful
concerted or union activity.
(v) Threatening to challenge its employees’ unemployment insurance claims
because of their union and concerted activities, except where lawfully
permitted.
(w) Promulgating or maintaining a rule requiring employees to surrender
their personal phones to the Respondent so that the Respondent can
discover and ascertain with whom its employees speak and text;
engaging in unlawful surveillance by such conduct; or threatening its
employees by enforcement of such a rule.
(x) In any other like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or
coercing its employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization,
to form labor organizations, to join or assist any labor organization, to
bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and to
engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, or to refrain from any and all
such activities.
(y) Discharging its employees or in any other manner discriminating in
regard to hire or tenure of employment or any other term or condition of
employment, in order to discourage membership in United Food and
Commercial Workers Union Local 99, AFL-CIO or in any other labor
organization.
2. Take the following affirmative action necessary to effectuate the policies of
the Act:
(a) Within five (5) days of the Board’s Order, offer, in writing, Isabell
Marquez, Hamid Amiri, Yadu Rijal, and Geoffrey Kachiolwa immediate
reinstatement to their former respective positions, or if those positions no
longer exist, to substantially equivalent positions of employment, without
prejudice to their seniority or other rights and privileges.
(b) Immediately offer Narayan Timsina promotion to the position he was
allegedly denied, or if such position no longer exists, to a substantially
equivalent position of employment, without prejudice to his seniority or
other rights and privileges.
6
(c) Make whole Isabell Marquez for any loss of pay she may have suffered
by reason of the alleged discrimination against her, by payment to her of
$8,462.00, plus additional backpay which may have accrued on or after
October 4, 2011, to be calculated by the Regional Director for Region 28
(the Regional Director) using standard Board formulae.
(d) Make whole Yadu Rijal for any loss of pay he may have suffered by
reason of the alleged discrimination against him, by payment to him of
$6,164.00, plus additional backpay which may have accrued on or after
October 4, 2011, to be calculated by the Regional Director using
standard Board formulae.
(e) Make whole Geoffrey Kachiolwa for any loss of pay he may have
suffered by reason of the alleged discrimination against him, by payment
to him of $2,373.00, plus additional backpay which may have accrued on
or after October 4, 2011, to be calculated by the Regional Director using
standard Board formulae.
(f) Make whole Hamid Amiri, who has waived his right to reinstatement, for
any loss of pay he may have suffered by reason of the alleged
discrimination against him, by payment to him of $6,041.00, plus
additional backpay which may have accrued on or after October 4, 2011,
to be calculated by the Regional Director using standard Board formulae.
(g) Make whole Aaron Rhodes for any loss of pay he may have suffered by
reason of the alleged discrimination against him, by payment to him of
the amount of backpay to be calculated by the Regional Director using
standard Board formulae.
(h) Make whole Narayan Timsina for any loss of pay he may have suffered
by reason of the alleged discrimination against him, by payment to him
of the amount of backpay to be calculated by the Regional Director using
standard Board formulae.
(i) Within 14 days of the Board’s Order, remove from the Respondent’s files
any reference to the discharges of Isabell Marquez, Yadu Rijal, Hamid
Amiri, and Geoffrey Kachiolwa and within 3 days thereafter, notify them
in writing that this was done and that the discharges will not be used
against them in any way.
(j) Within 14 days of the Board’s Order, remove from the Respondent’s files
any reference to the May 2011 final warning issued to Aaron Rhodes
and within 3 days thereafter, notify him, in writing, that this was done and
that the discipline will not be used against him in any way.
7
(k) Upon approval of this stipulation by the Board and receipt of the
Notice(s) from the Region, which may include Notice(s) in more than one
language as deemed appropriate by the Regional Director, the
Respondent will post in conspicuous places in and about its facility in
Mesa, Arizona, and in conspicuous places in and about its jobsite at the
Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona (“Respondent’s
Jobsite”), including all terminals and the rental car center where the
Respondent occupies its offices, break rooms and other related areas,
including all places where notices to employees are customarily posted,
and maintain for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting, copies of
the attached Notice marked “Appendix”1 (and versions in other
languages as deemed appropriate by the Regional Director) made a part
hereof, said Notice(s) to be signed by a responsible official of the
Respondent and the date of actual posting to be shown thereon.
(l) In addition to physical posting of paper Notices, Notices shall be
distributed electronically, such as by e-mail, posting on an intranet or an
internet site, or other electronic means, if the Respondent customarily
communicates with its employees by such means. The electronic
posting shall remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date it was
originally posted. The Respondent will e-mail the Region’s Compliance
Officer at Miguel.Rodriguez@nlrb.gov with a link to the electronic posting
location on the same day as the posting. In the event that passwords or
other log-on information is required to access the electronic posting, the
Respondent agrees to provide such access information to the Region’s
Compliance Officer. If the Notice is distributed via e-mail, the
Respondent will forward a copy of the e-mail distributed to the Regional
Compliance Officer.
(m) The Notice(s) will be read aloud by a responsible agent of the
Respondent, by or in the presence of Myron Luckenbach, Michael
Venturella, Wade Lewis, Javier Diaz, the successor to any of these
individuals, or by an agent of the Board in the presence of Myron
Luckenback, Michael Venturella, Wade Lewis, Javier Diaz or his
successor to all employees employed by the Respondent at the
Respondent’s Jobsite, including at multiple meetings and in Spanish and
other languages, if necessary as determined by the Regional Director, to
ensure that it is read aloud to all employees, within 14 days from the
commencement of the standard posting period.

1 If this Order is enforced by a judgment of a United States court of appeals, the words
in the notice reading "Posted By Order of the National Labor Relations Board" shall read
"Posted Pursuant to a Judgment of the United States Court of Appeals Enforcing an
Order of the National Labor Relations Board."
8
(n) This stipulation is subject to the approval of the Board and, immediately
upon the approval by the Board, it will be retroactively effective to the
date of execution of the stipulation.
(o) Within 21 days after service by Region 28, file with the Regional Director
a sworn certification of a responsible official on a form provided by the
Region attesting to the steps that the Respondent has taken to comply.
Dated, Washington, D.C., December 16, 2011

___________________________________
Mark Gaston Pearce, Chairman
___________________________________
Craig Becker, Member
___________________________________
Brian E. Hayes, Member
(SEAL) NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
9
APPENDIX
NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES
Posted by Order of the
National Labor Relations Board
An Agency of the United States Government
PURSUANT TO A STIPULATION PROVIDING FOR A BOARD ORDER AND A
CONSENT JUDGMENT OF ANY APPROPRIATE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS
FEDERAL LAW GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO:
Form, join, or assist a union;
Choose representatives to bargain with us on your behalf;
Act together with other employees for your benefit and protection;
Choose not to engage in any of these protected activities.
WE WILL NOT do anything that interferes with these rights. More particularly:
WE WILL NOT try to stop you from participating in concerted activities. These
activities include discussing your working conditions with fellow employees and others.
Your working conditions include, but are not limited to, how much we pay you, the
benefits that we provide to you, and how we treat and discipline you. You have the
right to make common complaints with your fellow employees and others about your
working conditions, including the way our executives, managers, human resources
personnel, and supervisors treat and discipline you. WE WILL NOT try to stop you
from engaging in these or other discussions and complaints relating to your pay,
benefits, working conditions, and our executives, managers, human resources
personnel, and supervisors.
WE WILL NOT discharge you or in any other manner discriminate in regard to your
hire or tenure of employment or any other term or condition of your employment
because of your activities on behalf of or support for the UNITED FOOD AND
COMMERCIAL WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 99 (the Union), or any other labor
organization.
WE WILL NOT maintain in our Employees’ Handbook for Hourly Employees, or
anywhere else, the following rule:
At pages 5 and 6:
10
You are required to read, understand, and comply with all provisions of the
handbook. Any questions concerning the written material should be
discussed with your supervisor or Human Resources Department.
This handbook is the exclusive property of GCA and is to be used for
internal business purposes only. The contents of this handbook should not
be distributed or disclosed to anyone outside of GCA.
WE WILL NOT maintain in our Employees’ Handbook for Hourly Employees, or
anywhere else, the following rule:
At page 23:
No Solicitation and No Distribution
Because of the need to maintain an atmosphere conducive to our goals of
high quality service and employee productivity, the Company has adopted
regulations with regard to solicitations and distributions on Company
property.
Non-employees are not allowed to solicit or distribute materials for
donations on Company property, nor are they allowed to solicit employees
or the public for the purpose of urging or encouraging them to purchase
any items.
You, as an employee, are not permitted to encourage or solicit
membership in fraternal, civic, religious, or other organizations on work
time or in work areas.
WE WILL NOT maintain in our Employees’ Handbook for Hourly Employees, or
anywhere else, the following rule:
At page 24:
Loitering
To prevent interruption of the work schedules of others, you will be
expected to leave the premises immediately following the completion of
your working hours. However, you must not leave your work-station
before your shift ends without the permission of your supervisor. The
practice of having children or other members of your family or friends
waiting for you at the jobsite or areas other than public waiting rooms is
against Company policy.
WE WILL NOT detain and interrogate you about your union membership, activities, and
sympathies or the union membership, activities and sympathies of other employees.
11
WE WILL NOT promulgate or enforce unlawful rules that prohibit you from engaging in
concerted activities, distributing union literature, speaking about the union, or speaking
with union representatives.
WE WILL NOT create the impression among you by any means that your union and
concerted activities are under surveillance.
WE WILL NOT engage in any form of surveillance of you to discover your union and
concerted activities.
WE WILL NOT solicit complaints and grievances in any manner from you and make
promises to remedy your complaints and grievances if you refrain from supporting the
Union.
WE WILL NOT promise or announce to you improved pay or benefits in order to
dissuade you from supporting the Union.
WE WILL NOT threaten you that we will not discuss with or grant you pay raises or
improved benefits until you cease support for and activities on behalf of the Union.
WE WILL NOT attribute our failure and inability to grant pay raises or improved benefits
to your support for and activities on behalf of the Union or because you engage in union
activities.
WE WILL NOT inform you that it would be futile to support the Union.
WE WILL NOT threaten you that we will not bargain in good faith with the Union if you
select the Union as your bargaining representative.
WE WILL NOT threaten you by any means with a loss of employment, denial of
promotions, discipline, or other reprisals if you speak with Union representatives or join,
support or engage in activities on behalf of the Union.
WE WILL NOT unlawfully disparage the Union in order to dissuade you from supporting
the Union.
WE WILL NOT threaten you by inviting you to quit your employment because of your
Union activities or by asking you about being discharged by former employers.
WE WILL NOT promise or grant to you improved wages, hours, and other terms and
conditions of employment through creation and institution of our certified trainer
position.
WE WILL NOT promise or grant you improved pay and benefits through the institution
of our safety bingo program.
12
WE WILL NOT maintain a rule that prohibits you from discussing your wages with fellow
employees and others.
WE WILL NOT promise or offer to you wage increases or promotions, including
promotions to the positions of supervisor, certified trainer, lead, or other supervisory or
higher-paid positions to dissuade you from engaging in union and concerted activities.
WE WILL NOT offer to or threaten you with transfers and promotions to isolate you from
fellow employees for the purpose of interfering with their union and concerted activities.
WE WILL NOT threaten you by unlawfully threatening Union representatives in your
presence that they are trespassing while at or in the vicinity of our facilities.
WE WILL NOT threaten you by summoning the police to the vicinity of our facilities
during or because you engaged in lawful concerted or union activity.
WE WILL NOT threaten to challenge your unemployment insurance claims because of
your union and concerted activities, except where lawfully permitted.
WE WILL NOT promulgate or maintain a rule requiring you to surrender your personal
phones to us so that we can discover and ascertain with whom you speak and text;
engage in unlawful surveillance by such conduct; or threaten you by enforcement of
such a rule.
WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce
employees in the exercise of the rights listed above.
WE WILL rescind and give no effect to the unlawful rules described above, and
WE WILL furnish all employees on a nationwide basis with inserts for the current edition
of the Employees’ Handbook for Hourly Employees that advise that the unlawful rules
have been rescinded, or provide the language of lawful rules; or, alternately, publish
and distribute to all current employees on a nationwide basis, a revised Employees’
Handbook for Hourly Employees that does not contain the unlawful rules, or provides
the language of lawful rules.
WE WILL immediately offer, in writing, to reinstate Isabell Marquez, Yadu Rijal, Hamid
Amiri, and Geoffrey Kachiolwa to their former jobs, or if those jobs no longer exist, to
substantially equivalent positions of employment, without prejudice to their seniority or
other rights and privileges.
WE WILL immediately make Isabell Marquez, Yadu Rijal, Hamid Amiri, and Geoffrey
Kachiolwa whole with interest, compounded on a daily basis, for the wages and
benefits they lost because we terminated them.
13
WE WILL immediately make Aaron Rhodes whole, with interest, compounded on a
daily basis, for any loss of pay he may have suffered by reason of the alleged
discrimination against him.
WE WILL immediately offer Narayan Timsina promotion to the position he was
allegedly denied, or if such position no longer exists, to a substantially equivalent
position of employment, without prejudice to his seniority or other rights and privileges,
and WE WILL immediately make Narayan Timsina whole with interest, compounded
on a daily basis, for any loss of pay he may have suffered by reason of the alleged
discrimination against him.
WE WILL remove from our files any reference to the discharges of Isabell Marquez,
Yadu Rijal, Hamid Amiri, and Geoffrey Kachiolwa and WE WILL notify them in
writing that this has been done and that the discharges will not be used against them in
any way.
WE WILL remove from our files any reference to the May 2011 final warning that we
issued to Aaron Rhodes and WE WILL notify him in writing that this has been done
and that the discipline will not be used against him in any way.
GCA SERVICES GROUP, INC.
(Employer)
DATE: ______________________ BY:______________________________
(Representative) (Title)
THIS IS AN OFFICIAL NOTICE AND MUST NOT BE DEFACED BY ANYONE
This notice must remain posted for 60 consecutive days from the date of posting
and must not be altered, defaced or covered by any other material.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent Federal agency created in 1935
to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. We conduct secret-ballot elections to
determine whether employees want union representation and we investigate and
remedy unfair labor practices by employers and unions. To find out more about your
rights under the Act and how to file a charge or election petition, you may speak
confidentially to any agent with the Board's Regional Office set forth below. You may
also obtain information from the Board's website: www.nlrb.gov
Telephone: (602) 640-2198
2600 North Central Avenue, Ste 1800
Phoenix, AZ 85004-3099
Hours of Operation: 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.