Providence Washington Insurance Co.

248 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD PROVIDENCE WASHINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY and LOCAL No. 100, INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS , AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 1-RC-2760. July 15,1952 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 Sidney A. Coven, 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Murdock and Peterson]. 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 em- ployees 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 parties stipulated that a unit of all boiler room employees is appropriate. However, the Petitioner, over the opposition of the Employer, would exclude Merrill S. Steere as a supervisor. The record discloses that Steere was building superintendent and concededly a supervisor, as defined in the Act, until recently when he was transferred and placed in charge of the boiler room to replace the senior boiler room operator, who had quit his job a few weeks before. During the short interval between the date the senior boiler room operator left and the date Steere took over, Harold Sprague, one of the regular boiler room employees, was temporarily in charge of the boiler room. Although Steere replaced a former subordinate whose annual salary was $3,432, he retained the $5,260 a year salary which he received as building superintendent. At the present time, of the three employees under Steere, Sprague is paid $3,432 a year, representing a raise given him during the period he was in charge of the boiler room, and which amount corresponds to that paid the former senior boiler room oper- ator, and the remaining two employees are each paid $2,700 a year. The three boiler room employees other than Steere have regular fire- men's licenses, as well as temporary refrigeration machine operator 100 NLRB No. 38. PROVIDENCE WASHINGTON INSURANCE COMPANY 249 permits issued by the city of Providence. The latter permits require that the permittees work under the supervision of a person holding an unlimited operating engineer's license. Steere is the only remain- ing employee holding such a license. Testimony on behalf of the Employer reveals that the Employer has experienced a great deal of difficulty with the operation of its refrigeration gear and boiler room system. The refrigeration gear is very expensive and, in addition, its improper operation often results in a power failure which seriously affects the entire operation of the Employer, particularly in view of the fact that the Employer's business machines are electrically oper- ated. Although Steere was replaced as building superintendent by another employee, who is now Steere's supervisor, this employee was a former janitor and is not competent to give the technical advice needed in case anything goes wrong with the operation of the boiler room equipment. Thus, the Employer relies primarily on Steere, who has an extensive technical background, to insure the proper operation of the boiler room department. In this respect, the employees were told that Steere was in complete charge of the boiler room, that they were to answer to him and that they were to report to him anything not working properly. When something out of line is reported to Steere, he ,decides what should be done about it. If employees have any doubt about how to perform their work, they refer to Steere for instructions. Steere, also, on occasions when things are operating smoothly, permits employees to leave early without loss of pay. It is Steere's further responsibility to report to the Employer the fact that an employee is not doing his job properly and to see that employees' time cards are accurate. Upon all the foregoing facts, we find that Steere exercises independ- ent judgment in granting employees paid time off and responsibly directs the employees under him. Accordingly, we find that Steere is a supervisor as defined in the Act and shall exclude him from the unit hereinafter found appropriate. We find that all boiler room employees at the Employer's Provi- dence, Rhode Island, main office, excluding supervisors' as defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act 2 [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this volume.] 1 Excluded under this classification is Merrill S. Steere. s The description of the unit appears as amended at the hearing.