Brockton-Taunton Gas Co.

`940 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR 'RELATIONS BOARD men, pulp dryer foremen, head'pipefitter, chief electrician, stenog- rapher, managers, assistant managers, superintendents, master mechanics, district office employees, main office employees, as- sistant superintendents, assistant master mechanics, chief chem- ists, cashiers, employees, of the agricultural department (other than beet dump repair men), superintendent's clerks, wet and pressed pulp silo employees, female beet clerks, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in the Act. 5. The Employer's operations are seasonal. At the time of the 'hearing the Employer's plant was not in operation. In agreement with the parties, we shall, in accordance with our usual practice in seasonal industries, direct that an election be held at or about the peak of the season, on a date to be determined by the Regional Direc- tor, among the employees in the appropriate unit who are employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the date of the -issuance of notice of election by the Regional Director. . [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] Brockton-Taunton Gas Company 1 and Local 273, Utility Work- ers Union of America, AFL -CIO.2 _ Case No. R-4964 (formerly 1-R-1351) . August 10, 1961 SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND ORDER 'On April IT, 1943, the Board certified Brockton Gas Employees -Local Union, Utility Workers Organizing Committee, Congress of Industrial Organizations, as the bargaining representative of all shop, distribution, garage, and production plant employees, including dis- Itribution and production plant clerks, but excluding executives, office 'employees, supervisory employees, nonworking foremen, plant guards, -meter readers, bill collectors, and secretaries to the superintendent, at Brockton Gas Light Company, Brockton, Massachusetts. On August 10, 1960, the Employer and Union filed a joint request for clarification of the unit, with respectct to whether certain employees classified as district representatives, should be within or excluded from, the unit now represented by the Union. Thereafter, the Board issued an order remanding the proceeding to the Regional Director for the First Region to conduct a hearing, or to obtain from the parties a stipulation of facts, on the issues raised by the parties in their request for clarification. A hearing was held on December 13, 1960, before Successor to Brockton Gas Light Company, the Employer' s name in 1943 z Successor to Brockton Gas Employees Local Union, Utility Workers Organizing Com- mittee, CIO, the Union's name in 1943. 132 NLRB No. 63. BROCKTON-TAUNTON GAS COMPANY 941 .Ernest Modern, hearing officer. Both parties appeared and partici- pated in the hearing. 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 National Labor Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with this proceeding to a three-member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Rodgers and Leedom]. Upon the entire record, the Board finds : The Employer is a gas utility which provides services to residential, commercial, and industrial consumers in southeastern Massachusetts. Its principal office is in the city of Brockton, but it also has offices at Scituate and Marshfield, both of which are about 20 miles from Brock- ton. In 1943, when the Union's predecessor was certified, Scituate- Marshfield was a rural and resort area with many seasonal residents who required gas service only during the summer months. To handle this limited demand, the Company employed two district representa- tives in the area who handled complaints, collected bills, and per- formed the necessary service work of reading meters, servicing appli- ances, and, in the peak months of May and August, turning the gas on and off at the homes. During the winter they did sales promotion and customer relations work. The district representatives did not vote in the 1943 election, and the classification has been specifically excluded from the collective-bargaining agreements executed there- after, including the most recent agreement in 1960. In the last decade, however, year-round residents began moving into the Scituate-Marshfield area with a consequent demand for continuous gas services. These increased demands have gradually required the district representatives to spend more of their time in service work and less in bill collecting and sales work. They now devote at least 80 percent of their time to service work of the type regularly performed by the servicemen who work in the Brockton area, and who have always been included in the unit. Both district representatives and service- men handle customer complaints, drive trucks, service and maintain appliances, and turn gas meters on and off. They enjoy the same holi- day, vacation, and insurance benefits. Servicemen arehourly paid and receive overtime while the representatives are salaried and receive "standby" pay. Both classifications, however, receive approximately the same amount of compensation. There are no transfers or inter- change between the representatives and servicemen, although service- men are occasionally detailed to the Scituate-Marshfield area in the summer to assist when the workload is too heavy for the four repre- sentatives now regularly employed there. Unlike the servicemen, the district representatives do not wear uniforms, and deal directly with the customers from whom they also make bill collections. 942 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD . The increased service work performed by the district representatives is the reason for this proceeding. The Union contends that the dis- trict representatives should now be added to the unit since their work is substantially the same as that of the servicemen in the Brockton area. The Employer does not dispute that the district representatives may properly be added to the unit, but it maintains that they should be entitled to vote on their inclusion. When a new employee classification is created or the Employer's, operations are expanded following a certification, it is Board's policy to include the new classification or the expanded operation in the unit if the employees involved are normal accretions to such unit, without an election, by amending the unit description .3 Here, however, dis- trict representative is not a new classification since its existence ante- dates the certification, nor has the change in duties of the district rep- resentatives been tantamount to the creation of a new classification since their duties have gradually changed over a 10-year period. No, employees in the district representative classification are employed outside the Scituate-Marshfield area. Thus, despite the, change in their duties, the district representatives have not lost their distinctive- ness as a geographically separate and identifiable classification which is separately supervised and which does not transfer or interchange with the servicemen. In these circumstances, we believe that the district representatives are not an accretion to the existing unit and that they are therefore entitled to vote on whether they wish to be included in the unit. As the procedure for this purpose is a petition filed pursuant to the requirements of Section 9 (c) of the Act, rather than through a motion or request to clarify, we shall dismiss the instant request. [The Board dismissed the joint request for clarification of the unit.], ' See, e g., Continental Can Company, Inc., 127 NLRB 286. El Paso Country Club, Inc. and Local 628, Bartenders & Culi- nary Workers Union, Hotel & Restaurant Employees & Bar- tenders International Union , AFL-CIO. Case No. 28-RC-786 (formerly 33-RC-786). August 10, 1961 DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before James W. 'Mast, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.' 'As the Employer, at the original hearing on September 16, 1960, refused to comply with a subpoena duces tecum to produce commerce information, and the evidence offered 132 NLRB No. 69. ,