Seton Medical Center

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 28, 1975

221 N.L.R.B. 120 (N.L.R.B. 1975)

120 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Seton Medical Center and North Central Texas
Laborers' District Council-Health Care Division,
Petitioner. Case 23-RC-4256
October 28, 1975
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, 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 Robert S.
Breaux of the National Labor. Relations Board.
Following the close of hearing, the Regional Director
for Region 23 transferred this case to the Board for
decision. Thereafter, Employer filed a brief with the
Board.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this proceeding, includ-
ing the brief filed herein, the Board finds:
1. The parties stipulated that Employer, a non-
profit Texas corporation, is a nonprofit privately
owned hospital located in Austin, Texas. The annual
gross revenue of the hospital during the 12 months
preceding the hearing was in excess of $250,000 and
during the same period of time the hospital received
goods valued in excess of $50,000 both directly and
indirectly from States outside the State of Texas. The
parties' further stipulated that the hospital is engaged
in commerce and meets the Board's jurisdictional
standards. Accordingly, we find that Employer is
engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act
and that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to
assert jurisdiction in this proceeding.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of Employer.'
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. Petitioner seeks to represent a unit consisting
of all employees of Seton Medical Center employed
in the data processing department, including key-
punch operators,2 data control clerks, and other
clerical employees in the department. Petitioner also
i At the hearing , Employer, though agreeing to stipulate that North
Central Texas Laborers ' District Council is a labor organization within the
meaning of the Act, refused to stipulate that North Central Texas Laborers'
District Council-Health Care Division is a labor organization within the
meaning of the Act . Petitioner's international representative , David Jacobs,
indicated that "Health Care Division" is a designation of the segment of the
Laborers' District Council concerned with health care employees. The
record also reflects that Petitioner , as designated herein, exists for the
purpose of dealing with employers with respect to rates of pay, hours, and
221 NLRB No. 4
expressed willingness , however, to, participate in an
election involving any unit found appropriate.
Contrary to Petitioner, Employer contends that a
unit of approximately eight data processing depart-
ment employees is too limited in nature. Instead,
Employer claims that the only appropriate unit is one
encompasing all clerical and clerical-related employ-
ees engaged in the record-processing function at the
Medical Center. Thus, Employer suggests that the
unit found appropriate should include the approxi-
mately 50 employees in the following classifications:
All employees in the data processing department,
including keypunch operators, data control clerks,
and other clerical employees in the department; all
employees employed in the Patient Account Services
Department, including cashiers, audit clerks, patient
service representatives, admitting clerks, clerk typists
and other employees in the department; all employ-
ees in the patient records department, including file
clerks, transcribers, data analysts, insurance and
birth certificate clerks, and other employees in the
department; all employees in the accounting depart-
ment, including accounting clerks, accounting assist-
ants, payroll clerks, and other clerical, employees in
the department; all employees employed in the credit
and collection department, including file clerks,
collection clerks, and other clerical 'employees in the
department; all employees employed on the switch-
board, including the PBX operators; all employees
employed in the purchasing department,' including
purchasing clerks, clerk-typists, document control
clerks, assistant purchasing agents,'and other clerical
employees in the department; all employees em-
ployed in the controller's department, including
accounting clerks and other clerical employees in the
department; all employees employed' in the develop-
ment department, including the department secretary
and other clericals; all employees employed in the
engineering department, including the department
secretaries and other clerical' employees in the
department; all employees in the volunteer depart-
ment, including department secretaries and other
clerical employees in the department; and all clerical
employees in the materials department, including the
department secretary, messengers , mail clerks, and
other clerical employees.
Employer also contends that the switchboard
department's chief operator is not a supervisor as
other terms and conditions of employment and that employees participate
in its affairs. Accordingly, we find that Petitioner , as designated herein, is a
labor organization within the meaning of the Act.
2 There is some confusion in the record as to whether these data
processing department employees are called keypunch operators or data
entry operators . Accordingly, all reference hereinafter to keypunch
operators is also intended as a reference to all employees classified as data
entry operators.
SETON MEDICAL CENTER
defined in the Act. Petitioner has taken no position
with respect to the chief operator's supervisory
status.
The hospital employs approximately 900 individu-
als, including Administrator Sister Damian Wetzel,
Associate Administrator Jon Hilsabeck, Assistant
Administrator Paul Thomas, and Assistant Adminis-
trator for Fiscal Services Sister Dorothea Moll.3
Sister Dorothea is directly in charge of the patient
account services department and she also exercises
general supervision over the accounting department,4
credit and collection department,5 and switchboard
department.6 The patient records departmentj pur-
chasing department,8 materials department,9 control-
ler's department,'° development department,11 engi-
neering department,12 volunteer department,13 and
data processing department are all under separate
immediate supervision.
Data Processing Department: This department,
which is located on the hospital's ground floor,14
consists of six or seven keypunch operators, one lead
keypunch operator, and one data control clerk. The
director of data processing is Ron Edwards. Under
the director, and immediately in charge of the
employees being sought by Petitioner, is Al Prince.15
The data processed by the department's employees
comes from virtually every section of the hospital.
The raw data is received in the data processing
department either through,a dumbwaiter and pneu-
matic tube system 16 or is actually walked into the
data processing section by individuals in other
departments. After the data" is transcribed to elec-
tronic tapes, it is transmitted to King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania, where it is processed and returned to
the hospital in the form of printouts. These printouts
are then distributed by the data processing depart-
3 The parties stipulated to the supervisory status of Sister Damian
Wetzel, Jon Hilsabeck, and Sister Dorothea Nor is any question raised as to
the supervisory status of Paul Thomas. The record clearly indicates that he
is a supervisor within the meaning of the Act and we so find.
4 This is accomplished through Robert Vitek, the director of accounting,
and Ida Mae Share who are both stipulated to be supervisors within the
meaning of the Act. -
5 Collection Manager Omega Watkins, a stipulated supervisor and head
of the credit and collection department, is under the direction of Sister
Dorothea.
6 The eight PBX operators who operate the switchboard on an around-
the-clock basis are under the direction of Sister Dorothea. The chief
operator was not agreed to be either a supervisor or an employee. The issue
of her supervisory status is discussed infra.
7 Assistant Administrator Paul Thomas, in connection with admitted
Supervisor Dora King, is directly responsible for this department's
operation.
8 The purchasing department is also under the direction of Paul Thomas
through the intermediate direction of an admitted supervisor, Alpm
Cumming, director of material, and an admitted supervisor, Lows
Christianson, director of purchasing.
9 Alpin Cumming also heads the materials department.
to Controller Hank Naizer, who is stipulated to be a supervisor, is under
the direct supervision of Administrator Sister Damian Wetzel
li Robert Clark, who is in charge of the development department,
reports directly to Sister Damian Wetzel.
121
ment to any department in the hospital which needs
to use the information.
In determining whether a unit limited to employees
of the hospital's data processing department is
appropriate, we are mindful that the principal thrust
of the legislative history, of the health care amend-
ments admonishes the Board to avoid undue prolifer-
ation of bargaining units in the health care lndus-
try.17 Consideration of this legislative history, in
Duke University, 217 NLRB No. 136 (1975), led the
Board to conclude that a unit limited to switchboard
operators at a health care institution is congressional-
ly foreclosed. There, the Board declared that, "[i]f
each such departmental grouping of employees at a
health care facility was, on similar bases, found to be
appropriate, a severe fragmentation of bargaining
units would necessarily be the result." 18 In the
instant case, moreover, the chief factors setting the
data processing employees apart from the hospital's
other clerical employees engaged in the record-
processing function are their separate supervision
and their utilization of specialized skills in the
operation of keypunch machines. In the circum-
stances herein, we do not view these factors as a
sufficient basis for fording that the data processing
employees possess a distinct community of interest
separate from the hospital's other business office
clerical employees.19 Rather, mindful of the congres-
sional direction against the undue proliferation of
bargaining units in the health care industry, we find
that the unit of data processing employees is not
appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.
Office Clerical Employees: We also conclude,
however, that the data processing employees may
properly be included in a 'separate unit of business
12 An admitted supervisor, Bill Flynn, head of the engineering depart-
ment, also reports directly to Sister Darman Wetzel.
13 This department is headed by Mrs. Beverly Massingale, who is
stipulated to be a supervisor.
14 The hospital's structure consists of a ground or subsurface level and
floors one through eight. The following departments, in addition to data
processing, are located on the ground floor., accounting, purchasing,
materials, and switchboard.
15 The parties stipulated to the supervisory status of both Mr. Edwards
and Mr. Prince
16 The dumbwaiter and pneumatic tube system connects the data
processing department to the patient account services , credit and collec-
tions, and patient records departments.
17 See, e g. , S Rept. 93-766, 93d Cong., 2d Sess 5 (1974), H Rept 93-
1051, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 7 (1974)
i8 217 NLRB No. 136.
19 It is noteworthy that in Collins Radio Company, 206 NLRB 108 (1973),
which did not involve the health care industry, the Board found
inappropriate a separate unit of keypunch operators in the data conversion
section of the employer's computer services division notwithstanding the
operators' separate location and supervision and their use of specialized
skills. On the basis of the facts therem, the Board concluded that the
keypunch operators did not possess a distinct community of interest
separate from other office clerical employees Cf Colorado National Bank of
Denver, 204 NLRB 243 (1973)
122 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
office clerical employees as found appropriate by the
Board in Mercy Hospitals of Sacramento, Inc., 217
NLRB No. 131 (1975).20 The record reflects, more-
over, that the clerical employees whom Employer
specifies as comprising the appropriate unit 'all
perform mainly business-type functions. We further
conclude, therefore, that they also may properly be
included in a unit of business office clerical employ-
ees.21 Accordingly, for the aforementioned reasons,
and since Petitioner has expressed willingness to
appear on the ballot for any unit found appropriate,
we shall direct an election among business office
clerical employees, including the classifications
specified by Employer.
Chief Operator.- As indicated above, Employer
contends that the switchboard department's chief
operator, Martha Cook, is not a supervisor within the
meaning of the Act. Although this employee runs the
switchboard department under the direction of Sister
Dorothea, she also functions as a PBX operator
along with the other operators. Although the depart-
ment operates in three shifts, Ms. Cook generally
works only the first shift. Although Ms. Cook has the
authority to set schedules, approve vacation time,
and make decisions affecting the employment status
of employees, it is apparent that all of her actions are
subject to consultation with, and the approval of,
Sister Dorothea. However, while it does not appear
that the chief operator exercises supervisory authori-
ty, the present record does not sufficiently detail the
duties and responsibilities of this employee to enable
us to make a definitive determination as to her
supervisory status. We shall therefore permit her to
vote subject to challenge.
20 See also Meharry Medical College, 219 NLRB No. 57 (1975); and
Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, 217 NLRB No. 135 (1975).
21 The record herein reveals that certain clerical employees in the patient
records department are properly designated medical records employees.
Unlike medical' records employees in other cases (e.g., Sisters of St. Joseph of
Peace, 217 NLRB No. 135 (1975)), however, patient records employees
primarily are hired for their clerical qualifications and they spend no
significant portion of their time in nursing areas of the hospital. Rather, a
majority of their time is spent in the office working alongside other office
clerical employees. The record also indicates that the functions of patient
Conclusion
Based upon the foregoing and the entire record, we
shall direct- an election in the following unit of
employees which we find to be appropriate for the
purpose of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All full-time and regular part-time business
office clerical employees of Seton Medical Center,
Austin, Texas, including keypunch,operators and
data control clerks employed in the data process-
ing department; cashiers, audit clerks, patient
service representatives, admitting clerks, and
clerk typists employed in the patient account
services, department; file clerks, transcribers, data
analysts, insurance and birth certificate clerks,
and coding clerks employed in the patient records
department; accounting clerks, accounting assist-
ants, and payroll clerks- employed in the account-
ing department; file clerks and collection clerks
employed in the credit and collection depart-
ment; all PBX operators; purchasing clerks,
clerk-typists, document control clerks, and assist-
ant purchasing agents employed in the purchasing
department; accounting clerks employed in the
controller's department; the departmental secre-
tary employed in the development department;
the departmental secretary employed in the
engineering department; secretaries employed in
the, volunteer department; departmental secre-
tary, messengers, and mail clerks employed in the
materials department; but excluding all other
employees, professional employees, and guards
and supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election22 and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
records are strongly integrated with those of patient account services and
that both departments are located along a common corridor on the first
floor. Accordingly, we see no reason to separate any patient records
department employees from other business office clerical employees' and
shall include them in the business office clerical unit.
22 Inasmuch as the election being directed ism a broader unit than that
sought by Petitioner, we direct that Petitioner notify the Regional Director
within 10 days of this Decision and Direction of Election whether it wishes
to proceed to an election and, if so, to submit at that time such additional
showing of interest as may be required to support its petition.