Opinion ID: 278889
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Questioning Sufficiency of the Evidence

Text: 12 As usual, the testimony at the hearing was in conflict, and the petitioner attacks virtually all of the Board's findings as being unsupported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. 1 As to all but one of the findings, we see no merit in petitioner's arguments. Our scope of review is limited. The question on review is whether the Board's conclusions are supported and are reasonable. See 4 Davis, Administrative Law Treatise 143 (1958). As to all but one of the findings, the Board's conclusions must be upheld since they are supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole, even though in some instances different inferences might have been drawn from the facts. See Section 10(e) of the National Labor Relations Act, and Universal Camera Corp. v. N.L.R.B., 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951). 13 The finding which is open to question under the substantial evidence rule relates to the restriction of Carl White's telephone privileges. On February 2, 1966, the company was notified that White had been named an 'in-plant organizer' for the union. On March 18, a supervisor observed White making a personal phone call on a company phone, and the supervisor advised White that personal calls were not to be made unless they were an emergency. The company explained at the hearing that since the number of outside lines had been reduced from eight to five on March 15, 1966, customer representatives had complained of difficulty in reaching the plant. The rule against personal calls was meant to correct this. 14 The only evidence of discrimination was White's testimony that other employees continued to make personal calls. However, he could name only one instance when such a call was observed by a supervisor, and in that instance the supervisor testified that the employee was not in his department, and that he notified the employee's supervisor of the incident. At least one non-union employee testified that she had been reprimanded for personal use of a company phone. It was uncontradicted that the plant nurse (a non-management employee) was instructed to allow employees on sick call to make phone calls only in emergencies. 2 The lack of evidence of discrimination, the relative remoteness of the telephone incident from White's appointment as an organizer, the trivial nature of the discrimination alleged, and the reasonable explanation offered by the company, leads to the conclusion that there was a lack of substantial evidence for the Board's findings. 3 Procedural Questions 15 The petitoner claims that even though there may be substantial evidence to support the Board's findings, enforcement should be denied because the hearing was tainted by serious procedural errors.