John H. Harland Co.

588 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD to her seniority or other rights and privileges, and make her whole for any loss of pay she may have suffered by reason of the discrimination against her, by payment to her of a sum of money equal to that which she would normally have earned as wages from the date of the discrimination to the date of the offer of reinstatement, less her net earnings during such period, in accordance with the Board policy set forth in F. W. Woolworth Company, 90 NLRB 289, and Crossett Lumber Company, 8 NLRB 440. It will further be recommended that the Employer, upon reasonable request, make available to the Board and its agents all payroll and other records pertinent to the analysis of the amount due as backpay. Since the violations of the Act which the Employer committed are closely related to other unfair labor practices proscribed by the Act, and the danger of their commission in the future is reasonably to be anticipated from its past conduct, the preventive purposes of the Act may be thwarted unless the recommendations are coextensive with the threat To effectuate the policies of the Act, therefore, it will be recommended that the Employer cease and desist from infringing in any manner upon the rights guaranteed employees by the Act. As to the disposition of Jewel Lamb's ballot, an issue in Case No. 14-RC-3463, it will be recommended that the Employer's challenge of said ballot be overruled, and that her ballot be counted, since as an employee she was clearly eligible to vote. Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact, and upon the entire record in the case, the Trial Examiner makes the following: CONCLUSIONS OF LAW 1. Local 688, Warehouse & Distribution Workers, affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2(5) of the Act. 2. By discriminatorily discharging employee Jewel Lamb to discourage mem- bership and activity in the above-named labor organization, and thereby interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, the Employer was engaged in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 (a) (3) and (1) of the Act. 3. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting com- merce within the meaning of Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act. [Recommendations omitted from publication.] John H. Harland Company 1 and Office Employees International Union, Local 386, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 19-RC--818. May 5, 1960 DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Ernest W. Dean, Jr., 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 Leedom and Members Bean and Fanning]. Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 1 The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing. 127 NLRB No. 83. JOHN H. HARLAND COMPANY 589 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a single unit of production and maintenance employees at the Employer's Orlando, Florida, plant, including office clerical employees and group leaders, but excluding salesmen and the secretary to the plant manager. In the alternative, it would represent production and maintenance employees in one unit and office clerical employees in another unit. The Employer agrees with the Petitioner that a single plantwide unit, including office clerical employees, is appropriate, but contrary to the Petitioner, the Employer would include in any unit or units found appropriate, the secretary to the plant manager and the salesmen, and exclude the group leaders as supervisors. The Employer manufactures and processes check forms for banks located in the Southeastern United States. It employs 5 office cleri- cal employees and approximately 35 production and maintenance employees, pressmen, bindery employees, compositors, printers, proof- readers, paper cutters, stockroom men, and porters. There is no his- tory of collective bargaining on behalf of any of the employees of the Employer at the plant involved herein. The office clerical employees work in a room separated from the plant by a glass partition. They perform only office clerical duties and do not work with production and maintenance employees. The office clerical employees are sepa- rately supervised by the plant manager. In the absence of a bargain- ing history of inclusion of office clericals in a production and mainte- nance unit, it is the Board's policy to exclude office clerical employees from units of manual workers in manufacturing industries even where the parties agree to combine them in a single unit.2 Here, although the parties have agreed to such inclusion, there is no history of such inclusion. Accordingly, we shall establish a separate unit of office clerical employees and a separate unit of production and maintenance employees.3 There remains for consideration the unit placement of the secretary to the plant manager, the salesmen, and the group leaders. Secretary to the plant manager: The Petitioner contends that this 2 See Marston Corporation, 120 NLRB 76, 78; Charles Bruning Company, Inc., 126 NLRB 140, particularly footnote 3. 'Although the Petitioner has submitted a sufficient showing of interest in the overall unit, no information has been submitted as to its interest with respect to the office- clerical unit here found appropriate. The election among these employees directed below is therefore conditioned on the ascertainment by the Regional Director, before such elec- tion is held, that the Petitioner has a sufficient interest among these employees 590 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD employee performs confidential duties and should be excluded. The record shows that she performs the usual duties of a stenographer. She does not have access to personal files of employees, and does not assist or act in a confidential capacity to persons who formulate, de- termine, and effectuate management policies in the field of labor rela- tions. We therefore find that the secretary to the plant manager is not a confidential employee,' and we shall include her in the unit of office clerical employees. Salesmen: The Employer employs two salesmen, one of whom is assigned the territory of Florida, north of Orlando, and the other is assigned the territory of Florida, south of Orlando. They cover their territory 4 days a week and report to the plant 1 day a week. They do not work with production workers or office clerical employees and their contact with these employees is infrequent. They are supervised by the plant manager. Unlike the plant employees, who are paid on an hourly basis, the salesmen are paid a salary plus commission. Their- income , is 50 percent higher than that of the highest paid production worker. We conclude that the salesmen have no substantial commu- nity of interest with the production and maintenance employees or with the office clerical employees, and in accord with our usual prac- tice, and in agreement with the Petitioner, we shall exclude the sales- men from the units.5 Group leaders : There are three group leaders, Smith, Young, and Wint, whom the Petitioner would include and the Employer would exclude. These 3 individuals are in charge of departments contain- ing from 3 to 23 production or maintenance employees. They have power to approve or disapprove the hiring of applicants for employ- ment, and they may discipline or discharge employees who work in their respective groups. Young is in charge of the entire plant during the night shift. On the basis of the foregoing, we find that the three group leaders are supervisors and we shall exclude them. We find that the following groups of employees at the Employer's Orlando, Florida, plant, excluding from each unit salesmen, guards, group leaders, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act, con- stitute separate units appropriate for the purposes of collective bar- gaining within the meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act: (a) Office clerical employees, including office typists, office clerks, and the secretary to the plant manager. (b) All production and maintenance employees, including press- men, bindery employees, compositors, printers, proofreaders, paper cutters, stockroom men, and porters. [Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.] 4 The B. F. Goodrich Company, 115 NLRB 722 , 723-725. 5 Ozark Manufacturing and Supply Company, 108 NLRB 1476, 1477.