R. L. Polk & Co.

In the Matter of R. L. POLK. & Co., EMPLOYER and OFFICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, LOCAL 227, AFL, PETITIONER Case No. 9-RC-880.-Decided September 05, 1950 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a. petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Seymour Goldstein, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three- member panel [Members Houston, Murdock, and Styles]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) "and (7) of the Act. 4. The appropriate unit : The Petitioner seeks, primarily, a broad unit composed of all em- ployees employed at the Employer's direct mail division at 400 Pike Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, excluding homeworkers, guards, professional and confidential employees, and supervisors. Alternatively, the Peti- tioner requests separate units of the so-called production and mainte- nance employees, excluding homeworkers, and of the general office employees. The Employer contends that a unit of production and maintenance employees is appropriate, but would include all home- workers in the unit. As to the general office employees, the Employer asserts that these employees should be excluded from any unit found appropriate principally on the ground that they are confidential employees. 91 NLRB No. 75. 443 444 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Scope of Unit The Employer is engaged in the business of direct mail advertising and publishing of city directories, maintaining branches in large cities in various parts of the country. The Cincinnati direct mail division, the only one involved herein, is engaged in the compilation of sta- tistical lists relating to sales and ownership of automobiles. These lists are used mainly by other branches of the Employer in its direct mail advertising. There has been no history of collective bargaining concerning the employees involved in this proceeding.' The personnel employed at the Cincinnati division is composed of approximately 500 employees in the motor statistical and motor list departments, referred to in the record as production workers, 4 or 5 janitorial employees, and about 23 general office employees. The production employees are paid on a piecework basis with a guaranteed minimum hourly rate. They perform the business ma- chine operations, typing, and clerical work necessary to edit and collate information pertaining to automobile registrations received from points throughout the country ; they also transcribe such information on the cards and lists utilized by the Employer in its direct mail advertising. The janitorial employees are engaged in the usual build- ing and maintenance duties. The general office employees, consisting of accounting and personnel employees, switchboard operators, and clerical assistants to depart- ment heads,' are concerned with the over-all administration of the di- vision. The general office employees, except for the clerical assistants to the department heads whose status will be separately discussed in detail hereinafter, are paid on a salary basis, receiving wages higher than those of the production employees.3 They are located in a sepa- rate partitioned area, serve under separate immediate supervision, and perform work substantially different from that of the production group. There is no interchange of employees between the general office and production employees. Under all the circumstances, we are of the opinion that the general office employees lack a sufficient community of interest with the pro- duction and maintenance employees to warrant the inclusion of both these groups of employees in a single unit., We find, therefore, con- trary to the Petitioner's primary contention, that only separate units The Employer has collective bargaining agreements at other branches where the oper- ations differ from those of the Cincinnati division. 2 The general office group also includes four private secretaries to managerial employees, whom the parties agree should be excluded as confidential employees. a The general office employees are paid by check from the Employer 's main office in Detroit, whereas the production and maintenance employees receive their wages from the Cincinnati branch. 4 Cf. Continental Oil Company, 74 NLRB 597. R. L. POLK & CO. 445 of the production and maintenance employees and of the general office employees are appropriate. While the Petitioner has requested, in the alternative, that such separate units be established, it has made an adequate showing of interest only among the production and mainte- nance employees. Accordingly, we shall consider only the composition of the production and maintenance unit.5 Composition of Unit Homeworkers: The Employer presently employs about 350 home- workers whom it contends should be included in the production and maintenance unit. These individuals perform typing and clerical work at home, similar to that of the production employees, occasionally utilizing company equipment in such work. They determine their own work schedules, but when assigned work must complete a minimum of 20 hours per week. Some homeworkers were previously employed as regular production employees at the Cincinnati branch. The homeworkers personally contact the division office only when calling for and delivering work, and their work is checked by a special supervisor. Although they receive the same rate of pay as the pro- duction employees and have social security and income tax deductions made in the same manner, they do not receive holiday, vacation, or insurance benefits accorded the production employees. In view of the foregoing, and on the entire record, we are of the opinion that the interest and conditions of employment of the homeworkers are diverse from those of the production employees, and we shall, therefore, ex- clude them from the units Clerical assistants to deportment heads: Of the seven clerical assist- ants whom the Employer contends should be excluded from the unit, five are assigned on an individual basis to subdepartment heads who serve as production supervisors. The remaining two are assigned to the manager of the motor statistical department. The clerical assist- ants are hourly paid, keep records of the work in their respective pro- duction departments, and except for the two assistants to the manager of the motor statistical department, perform secretarial duties for their supervisors.' While the record indicates that the subdepart- ment heads may make recommendations on labor relations matters, they apparently- do not participate in collective bargaining negotia- tions, nor do they actually formulate company labor relations policy.. "Western Electric Company, Inc., 85 NLRB 227. 6 A. Rivetz Co., 87 NLRB 1352. Cf. Radiant Lamp Corporation, 74 NLRB 1338. z The secretarial duties for the manager of the motor statistical department are handled by a private secretary whom the parties agreed should be excluded as a confidential em- ployee. The record does not indicate that either of the clerical assistants acts in, the secretary's capacity during her absence or has access to confidential files. 446 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Accordingly, as the clerical assistants do not act in a confidential ca- pacity to persons exercising managerial functions in the field of labor relations, nor do they have access to general labor relations policy data, we find that they are not confidential employees.8 Because these employees have the same working conditions as the production em- ployees, are in frequent contact with them, and are subject to the same supervision, we find that their interests are closely allied to those of the production employees, and we shall include them in the unit of pro- duction and maintenance employees.' We find that all production and maintenance employees at the Employer's direct mail division in Cincinnati, Ohio, including clerical assistants to department heads, but encluding all other general office employees, holneworkers, professional and confidential employees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act. 5. The determination of representatives : The Employer employs approximately 50 night part-time workers. The Petitioner asserts that only such employees who worked at least 500 hours during the last year should be eligible to vote. The Employer contends that its night part-time employees are entitled to vote, without limitation on the number of hours worked. The individuals in question work about 4 hours a night, 4 nights a week, mainly during the peak period of operations from January to September of each year. During the remainder of the year, only a small number of these employees work regularly for the Employer. While the part-time employees d o'not receive all the benefits of the full-time workers, they perform the same type of work as the regular production employees at the plant and nearly all of them return from year to year. Some have worked for the Employer for the last 5 years. Under the circumstances, and in accordance with our usual practice, we find that all the night part-tine employees have sufficient interest in the conditions of employment to be eligible to vote in the electron.i' [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] s Ball Brothers Company, Incorporated, 87 NLRB 34; Singer Sewing Machine Co., 87 NLRB 460; Minneapolis-Moline Company, 85 NLRB 597 ; The Ohio Associated Telephone Company, 82 NLRB 972. Hotpoint, Inc., 85 NLRB 485. - '0 York Band Instrument Company, 87 NLRB 1576 . Cf. J. C. Penney do., Store No. 1518, 86 NLRB 920; Bakers' Shoe Store, 86 NLRB 1305. We likedise And, in accordance with the agreement of the parties , that the Employer's summer employees, who are students performing duties similar to those of the regular employees , under comparable working conditions , and who are offered regular employment at the end of the summer , are entitled to vote in the election directed hereinafter. Cf. Foremost Dairies, Inc., 86 NLRB 585.