Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/516/85/case.html
Timestamp: 2018-03-18 19:33:46
Document Index: 197480963

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 152', '§ 186', '§ 151', '§ 152', '§ 2', '§ 1001']

NLRB v. Town & Country Elec., Inc., (full text) :: 516 U.S. 85 (1995) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
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NLRB v. Town & Country Elec., Inc.,
(a) The Board may lawfully interpret § 152(3)'s language-i. e., "[t]he term 'employee' shall include any employee, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless this subchapter explicitly states otherwise" -to include company workers who are also paid union organizers. The Board's broad, literal reading of "employee" is entitled to considerable deference as the interpretation of the agency created by Congress to administer the Act. See, e. g., Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U. S. 883, 891. Moreover, several strong general arguments favor the Board's position. First, the Board's decision is consistent with the Act's language, particularly the "any employee" phrase, which is broad enough to include, under the ordinary dictionary definitions of "employee," those company workers whom a union also pays for organizing. Second, the Board's interpretation is consistent with several of the Act's purposes-such as protecting employees' right to organize for mutual aid without employer interference and encouraging and protecting the collective-bargaining process-and with the legislative history. Third, the Board's reading is consistent with this Court's decisions. See, e. g., ibid. Finally, § 186(c)(1) also seems specifically to contemplate the possibility that a company's employee might also work for a union. Pp.88-92.
Stapp filed a brief for the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, AFL-CIO, CFL, as amicus curiae.
In the course of its decision, the Board determined that all 11 job applicants (including the two Union officials and the one member briefly hired) were "employees" as the Act defines that word. Ibid. The Board recognized that under well-established law, it made no difference that the 10 members who were simply applicants were never hired. See
The Act seeks to improve labor relations ("eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce," 29 U. S. C. § 151 (1988 ed.)) in large part by granting specific sets of rights to employers and to employ-
We put the question in terms of the Board's lawful authority because this Court's decisions recognize that the Board
Several strong general arguments favor the Board's position. For one thing, the Board's decision is consistent with the broad language of the Act itself-language that is broad enough to include those company workers whom a union also pays for organizing. The ordinary dictionary definition of "employee" includes any "person who works for another in return for financial or other compensation." American Heritage Dictionary 604 (3d ed. 1992). See also Black's Law Dictionary 525 (6th ed. 1990) (an employee is a "person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed"). The phrasing of the Act seems to reiterate the breadth of the ordinary dictionary definition, for it says "[t]he term 'employee' shall include any employee." 29 U. S. C. § 152(3) (1988 ed.) (emphasis added). Of course, the Act's definition also contains a list of exceptions, for example, for independent contractors, agricultural laborers, domestic workers, and employees sub-
Further, a broad, literal reading of the statute is consistent with cases in this Court such as, say, Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, supra (the Act covers undocumented aliens), where the Court wrote that the "breadth of § 2(3)'s definition is striking: the Act squarely applies to 'any employee.'" 467 U. S., at 891. See NLRB v. Hendricks County Rural Elec. Membership Corp., 454 U. S. 170, 189-190 (1981) (certain "confidential employees" fall within the definition of "employees"); Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U. S., at 185-186 (job applicants are "employees"). Cf. Chemical Workers v.
Town & Country believes that it can overcome these general considerations, favoring a broad, literal interpretation of the Act, through an argument that rests primarily upon the common law of agency. It first argues that our prior decisions resort to common-law principles in defining the term "employee." See Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Darden, 503 U. S. 318, 323 (1992) (using common-law test to distinguish between "employee" and "independent contractor" under Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U. S. C. § 1001 et seq.); Community for Creative NonViolence v. Reid, 490 U. S. 730, 739-740 (1989) (using common-law test to distinguish between "employee" and "independent contractor" under Copyright Act of 1976, 17
As Town & Country correctly notes, in the context of reviewing lower courts' interpretations of statutory terms, we
Town & Country's "abandonment" argument is yet weaker insofar as the activity that constitutes an "abandonment," i. e., ordinary union organizing activity, is itself specifically protected by the Act. See, e. g., ibid. (employer restrictions
Further, the law offers alternative remedies for Town & Country's concerns, short of excluding paid or unpaid union
This is not to say that the law treats paid union organizers like other company employees in every labor law context. For instance, the Board states that, at least sometimes, a paid organizer may not share a sufficient "community of interest" with other employees (as to wages, hours, and working conditions) to warrant inclusion in the same bargaining unit. Brief for National Labor Relations Board 33, n. 14. See, e. g., NLRB v. Hendricks County Rural Elec. Membership Corp., 454 U. S., at 190 (some confidential workers, although "employees," may be excluded from bargaining unit). We need not decide this matter. Nor do we express any view about any of the other matters Town & Country raised before the Court of Appeals, such as whether or not Town & Country's conduct (in refusing to interview, or to retain, "employees" who were on the union's payroll) amounted to an