Opinion ID: 185699
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The prohibition of distribution

Text: 7 A hospital is presumptively allowed to prohibit the distribution of literature in any work area and to ban solicitation more narrowly in immediate patient-care areas. NLRB v. Baptist Hosp., Inc., 442 U.S. 773, 778-79, 99 S.Ct. 2598, 2601-02, 61 L.Ed.2d 251 (1979). Outside work areas a hospital may ban solicitation and distribution only as necessary to avoid disruption of health-care operations or disturbance of patients. Id. at 779, 99 S.Ct. at 2602. In this case the Board determined that the Hospital unlawfully prohibited employees from distributing union literature in the vestibule and at the other entrances because those areas are not work or immediate patient care areas and the Hospital had not demonstrated that the prohibition was necessary to avoid disruption or disturbance. See Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 7-10. The Hospital attacks these conclusions on several grounds, none of which we find persuasive. 8 The Hospital's primary contention is that prohibiting distribution in the vestibule was necessary to avoid disturbing patients. The Hospital first argues that the ALJ, whose opinion the Board adopted on this point, failed altogether to address this issue. Not quite. The ALJ's decision could have been more precise, but we agree with the Board that it is clear enough the ALJ was of the opinion the Hospital had not shown a likelihood of patients being disturbed: The ALJ acknowledged that the Hospital's expert witnesses had credibly testified that if patients or their families saw these articles they could become upset and anxious, but went on to find there was not a shred of evidence that any patient or family member saw any of this literature, the Hospital received no complaints about the literature, and [t]here was no evidence that any patient was ever disturbed or inconvenienced by the distribution of this literature. Id. at 7-8. 9 Turning to the merits, the Hospital argues that it presented evidence the prohibition was necessary, to wit, the disturbing nature of the literature; the testimony of three doctors that if patients saw the literature they could experience stress and become distrustful; the number of patients that use the vestibule to enter and exit the Hospital; and the testimony that literature (which may have been distributed in the vestibule) was left in various parts of the Hospital. The Hospital's position is that it was not required to show actual disruption or disturbance, but only that the distribution may adversely affect patients, quoting Baptist Hosp., 442 U.S. at 781, 99 S.Ct. at 2603. Finally, the Hospital asserts the Board failed to consider the availability of alternative means of communication, as required by Baylor Univ. Med. Ctr. v. NLRB, 662 F.2d 56, 63 (D.C.Cir.1981). The Board and the Union argue that the Board reasonably concluded the Hospital failed to show a likelihood of disturbance. 10 The Board and the Union concede, and we agree, that the Hospital had to show only a likelihood of, not actual, disruption or disturbance, see Baptist Hosp., 442 U.S. at 781 n. 11, 99 S.Ct. at 2603; but substantial evidence supports the Board's decision that the Hospital did not meet even this standard. The Hospital's experts testified that if patients saw or heard about the content of the literature they would be upset, Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 7-8; the Hospital presented no reason, however, to believe patients were likely to learn of the content of the literature. As the Board points out, when the Hospital stopped the nurses from distributing the literature in the vestibule, the nurses made clear that they intended to distribute it only to members of the Union — a practice approved by the Supreme Court in Beth Israel, 437 U.S. at 503 n. 23, 98 S.Ct. at 2475 n. 23 — and so they did. As the Board further notes, the Hospital produced no evidence that any patient or patient's family ever saw the literature, and there is no evidence of any complaint by a patient or a patient's relative. In Beth Israel the Court found the same lack of evidence regarding patients being disturbed [e]specially telling. Id. at 502, 98 S.Ct. at 2474. Furthermore, the Board reasonably discounted the significance of the Hospital's evidence that some literature was found in the lobby and near the cafeteria because the lobby was frequently policed by the cleaning staff and there was no evidence any patient or family or visitors ever picked up and read or even saw the literature. Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 8. 11 We also agree with the Board that the Hospital's reliance upon Baptist Hosp., 442 U.S. at 782-86, 99 S.Ct. at 2603-06 (upholding solicitation ban in corridors and sitting rooms) and Baylor, 662 F.2d at 65 (indicating that prohibition of solicitation in cafeteria during specified times may be lawful), is misplaced. In both cases, as the Board points out, the hospital presented evidence that the prohibited activity was likely to disturb patients or to disrupt operations. Baptist Hosp., 442 U.S. at 784, 99 S.Ct. at 2604-05; Baylor, 662 F.2d at 60 n. 5, 62. Finally, although the availability of alternative means of communicating with employees is an important consideration in some cases, see Beth Israel, 437 U.S. at 505, 98 S.Ct. at 2475-76; Baylor, 662 F.2d at 63-64, we agree with the Board that the possible availability of alternative areas for distribution of union literature is of marginal importance when, as in this case, the employer has not demonstrated an impact on patient care. See NLRB v. Southern Md. Hosp. Ctr., 916 F.2d 932, 936 (4th Cir.1990). 12 The Hospital also challenges the Board's conclusion that the vestibule is not a work area. The Hospital points out that employees assist discharged patients through the vestibule, janitors clean the area, and a guard is sometimes stationed there. Here the Hospital relies upon Pikeville United Methodist Hosp. of Ky. v. NLRB, 109 F.3d 1146 (6th Cir.1997), where the court referred to a patient drop-off area as a work area. In the alternative the Hospital argues that the vestibule should be considered part of the lobby, which it contends is also a work area. 13 The Board in its order correctly relied upon two of its prior cases for the proposition that cleaning, guarding, and escorting patients do not a work area make. Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 9 (citing United States Steel Corp., 223 N.L.R.B. 1246, 1976 WL 6939 (1976), and Medical Ctr. Hosp., 244 N.L.R.B. 742, 1979 WL 9858 (1979)). As for the reference in Pikeville to the contrary, it is unsupported by any analysis — not surprising, for the matter seems not to have been disputed, 109 F.3d at 1158 — and the same circuit has since held that an area in which minimal work occurs is not a work area, see United Parcel Service, Inc. v. NLRB, 228 F.3d 772, 775-77 (6th Cir.2000) (check-in area where instructions were sometimes given to drivers was not a work area); accord Valmont Indus., Inc. v. NLRB, 244 F.3d 454, 472-73 (5th Cir.2001) (upholding ALJ's determination that entranceway with desk at which foreman occasionally sat was not work area). Finally, the Board's decision to treat the vestibule — a self-contained area between the lobby and the outside entry, Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 8 — as a room distinct from the lobby was reasonable. The areas were, after all, separated by glass doors. 14 The Hospital next contends there is not substantial evidence that it prohibited the Union from distributing literature at the rear and Emergency/Outpatient entrances. The Hospital concedes that it failed to raise this issue before the Board, see 29 U.S.C. § 160(e) (No objection that has not been urged before the Board ... shall be considered by the court), but asks the court to consider the argument because the ALJ did not make clear that he found the Hospital had prohibited distribution at those entrances and therefore the Hospital did not argue to the Board that it had not prevented distribution there. Although the ALJ's decision is indeed ambiguous, the Board's decision is not, see Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 1 n. 5; yet the Hospital did not seek reconsideration by the Board. Consequently, the Hospital's argument is not properly before the court. See Woelke & Romero Framing, Inc. v. NLRB, 456 U.S. 645, 666, 102 S.Ct. 2071, 2083, 72 L.Ed.2d 398 (1982). 15 Next, the Hospital argues that the literature distributed by the nurses disparaged the Hospital's services and its distribution was therefore unprotected pursuant to NLRB v. Local Union No. 1229, Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 346 U.S. 464, 74 S.Ct. 172, 98 L.Ed. 195 (1953) (Jefferson Standard). For two reasons, we cannot agree. First, as the Board pointed out in its order, it is agreed by all the parties to this litigation that the articles did not refer to Brockton Hospital as being the hospital where any of the mishaps in the articles happened. Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 7. In other words, Brockton's services were not expressly disparaged. Second, insofar as the implication was that the same problems could occur at Brockton if it downsized its nursing staff, that inference could be drawn only by the Hospital's nurses, not by the public, because the distribution was limited to the nurses. In these circumstances the concern underlying Jefferson Standard, that activity reasonably calculated to harm the company's reputation and reduce its income rather than further collective bargaining be excluded from the protection of the Act, 346 U.S. at 471, 74 S.Ct. at 176, simply is not present. 16 Finally, the Hospital contends that the Board has ignored its heavy continuing responsibility to review its policies concerning organizational activities in various parts of hospitals, Beth Israel, 437 U.S. at 508, 98 S.Ct. at 2477. According to the Hospital, that review should have led the Board to decide that a hospital may presumptively ban solicitation and distribution in any area to which patients, their families and visitors have regular access. 17 The Board clearly did appreciate its continuing duty to keep current its approach to distribution and solicitation in hospitals; it simply found no support in the record for departing from ... well-settled principles. Brockton Hosp., 333 N.L.R.B. No. 165 at 2. Indeed, the Hospital does not even purport to have provided evidence that solicitation and distribution in all areas to which patients, their families, and visitors have access is disruptive or disturbing. Hence, the Board was not obligated to change its presumptions, and the Hospital's only defense of its policies limiting solicitation and distribution must fail.