{ "id": "RL34350", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL34350", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 438447, "date": "2013-01-03", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T21:30:49.751674", "title": "The Definition of \u201cSupervisor\u201d Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)", "summary": "The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) establishes certain protections for private sector employees who want to form or join a labor union. These protections do not extend to supervisors. Historically, Congress has debated where to draw the line between employees who have different levels of management responsibility. It is generally agreed that employees who have significant supervisory duties, such as hiring and firing, are supervisors. However, disagreement occurs with respect to employees who have minor supervisory duties.\nIn 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the test administered by the National Labor Relations Board (\u201cNLRB\u201d or the \u201cBoard\u201d) to determine whether an employee is a supervisor was inconsistent with the NLRA. In response to NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care, Inc., the Board issued a September 2006 decision in Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. in which it established new definitions for three key terms that are used to identify supervisors for purposes of the NLRA: to \u201cassign\u201d and \u201cresponsibly to direct\u201d employees and to exercise \u201cindependent judgment.\u201d\nApplying the new definitions, the NLRB concluded that 12 permanent charge nurses employed by Oakwood Healthcare were supervisors. The Board found that the nurses exercised independent judgment in assigning employees to patients and assigning overall tasks to other employees. However, the Board found that none of the charge nurses at Oakwood Healthcare responsibly directed other employees.\nIn the 112th Congress, Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradesworkers (RESPECT) Act (S. 2168). A similar version of the RESPECT Act was introduced in the 110th Congress by Representative Robert Andrews and Senator Chris Dodd (H.R. 1644/S. 969).\nThe RESPECT Act would narrow the definition of the term \u201csupervisor\u201d in the NLRA. The legislation would eliminate \u201cassign\u201d and \u201cresponsibly to direct\u201d from the current definition of supervisor in the NLRA. In addition, the act would add a limiting phrase to the definition of supervisor. Under the act, employees would be classified as supervisors if they are engaged in supervisory activities more than 50% of the time. Currently, an employee may be classified as a supervisor if the employee acts as a supervisor for at least 10%-15% of the employee\u2019s worktime. This change would reduce the number of employees who are classified as supervisors and, therefore, increase the number of employees protected by the NLRA\nThe RESPECT Act, if it were enacted, may have a significant impact on foremen. In 1947, the Supreme Court upheld the position that the Board followed at the time that supervisors were included in the definition of employee. In response, Congress amended the NLRA to exclude supervisors from the definition of employee. The new definition was included in the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (P.L. 80-101). Because the RESPECT Act would eliminate \u201cresponsibly to direct\u201d as a supervisory function, foremen and employees with similar duties may no longer be classified as supervisors. They could, therefore, receive the same protections as other employees under the NLRA.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL34350", "sha1": "0240743bc52e4058b901205c8876698e32fb2ff2", "filename": "files/20130103_RL34350_0240743bc52e4058b901205c8876698e32fb2ff2.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL34350", "sha1": "24c77df7b06edf4c2352d7fdb4d19a61ba45aec3", "filename": "files/20130103_RL34350_24c77df7b06edf4c2352d7fdb4d19a61ba45aec3.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3375, "name": "Labor Standards and Labor Relations" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc96802/", "id": "RL34350_2012Jul05", "date": "2012-07-05", "retrieved": "2012-08-07T13:52:45", "title": "The Definition of \u201cSupervisor\u201d Under the National Labor Relations Act", "summary": "This report discusses the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and their attempts to define the term \"supervisor\" in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) so that such employees can join or form a labor union as regular employees.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120705_RL34350_af328fc23804629d8d686d142d4d6c13a346e651.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120705_RL34350_af328fc23804629d8d686d142d4d6c13a346e651.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Labor", "name": "Labor" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Labor unions", "name": "Labor unions" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Supervisors", "name": "Supervisors" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc810285/", "id": "RL34350_2008Feb01", "date": "2008-02-01", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "The Definition of \"Supervisor\" Under the National Labor Relations Act", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080201_RL34350_41029f4ed131a5ec294841b90c4be937992c86c6.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080201_RL34350_41029f4ed131a5ec294841b90c4be937992c86c6.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Economic Policy" ] }