Opinion ID: 387150
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Interrogation of Employee Siminski.

Text: 22 1. Theresa Siminski, who no longer works at the Hospital, was the secretary to the assistant administrator in charge of fiscal affairs, Sol Goldner. She was questioned by both Goldner and Diller before and after the union meeting. Before the meeting, Diller asked Siminski if she knew anything about the union meeting and asked her to tell him the names of other employees who were planning to attend. Goldner called Siminski into his office twice on the day of the meeting. The first time he asked her not to go to the meeting. Siminski became so upset that Goldner told her to take a break. After she returned from her break, Goldner again called her into his office and again asked her not to go. Later in the day, Goldner changed his mind; he suggested that she go to the meeting and then report back to him about what had happened there. After the union meeting, Diller called Goldner's office. Siminski answered the phone and Diller asked her whether she had gone to the union meeting and whether she had signed a union card. Siminski told him that she attended the meeting but that she did not sign a union card. Diller replied that he thought someone had told him that she had signed a card. After Diller conversed with Goldner on the telephone, Goldner called Siminski into his office. He asked her whether she had signed a union card and again she denied it. 23 None of these interrogations was found by the ALJ to have been an unfair labor practice because the ALJ concluded that Siminski, as secretary to Sol Goldner, was a confidential employee and thus did not come within the Board's definition of employees who are protected under the Act. The Board reversed this conclusion; it found that Siminski was not a confidential employee, and held that the conduct of Goldner and Diller violated § 8(a)(1). 24 2. It is established Board policy that employees who have a confidential relationship to persons who formulate, determine, and effectuate management policies in the field of labor relations, are confidential employees and may be excluded from rank-and-file bargaining units. The B. F. Goodrich Co., 115 NLRB 722, 724 (1956); Ford Motor Co., 66 NLRB 1317 (1946). The ALJ found first, that Siminski worked in a confidential relationship with Goldner, and second, that Goldner is a person who formulates, determines, and effectuates management policies in the field of labor relations (the so-called labor nexus requirement, see, e. g., Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff, Cohen & Burrows, 253 NLRB No. 54 (1980)). Then the ALJ went on to find that the Board-created exclusion of confidential employees from rank-and-file bargaining units extends to exclude those employees from protection under the Act against unfair labor practices. 2 Therefore, according to the ALJ, the interrogations of Siminski by Diller and Goldner were not unfair labor practices because Siminski was a confidential employee, and as such, her concerted activities were not protected by the Act. 25 The Board reversed the ALJ's finding that Siminski was a confidential employee because the evidence was insufficient to indicate that Siminski worked in a confidential capacity to Goldner. Thus, the Board did not address the issue of whether Goldner, in his capacity as assistant administrator in charge of fiscal affairs, had the requisite labor nexus to warrant a finding that Siminski was a confidential employee. The Board did note that the ALJ made a finding inconsistent with current Board law when he concluded that the concerted activities of confidential employees go completely unprotected under the Act. 3 Likewise, we need not reach the labor nexus question or the question of the extent of coverage of confidential employees under the Act if we conclude that substantial evidence on the record as a whole supports the Board's finding that Siminski did not have the requisite confidential relationship with Goldner. 26 The Board stated that the ALJ's conclusion as to the confidential status of Siminski was based on a series of memoranda that were typed by Siminski for Goldner and that were introduced as evidence by the Hospital at the hearing. The documents included memoranda to the Hospital's personnel director regarding wage raises and evaluations by department heads of certain employees; a memo to an employee's file regarding his termination; and other internal management memoranda regarding payroll and other matters. The Board emphasized that Siminski could not be said to have a confidential relationship to Goldner solely because she typed these memoranda and because she had access to confidential data. In addition, Siminski's other duties of answering Goldner's telephone, opening his mail, and working with raw, confidential data that Goldner eventually used to implement policy decisions upon fiscal matters were insufficient to conclude that Siminski was a confidential employee. 27 Prior Board decisions have established that mere access to confidential material or typing of confidential labor relations memoranda does not, without more, establish a confidential relationship. United States Postal Service, 232 NLRB 556 (1978); Ernst & Ernst National Warehouse, 228 NLRB 590, 591 (1977). This circuit has previously held that mere access to confidential data is insufficient to constitute confidential employee status. See Union Oil Co. of Cal., Inc. v. NLRB, 607 F.2d 852, 854 (9th Cir. 1979). The Board refrains from a broad definition of confidential employees and justifiably so: Because most employees have an arguably confidential relationship with management, and because an expansive application of the exclusionary rule would deprive many employees of the right to bargain collectively, the Board has narrowly construed the definition of confidential employee. Union Oil, supra, 607 F.2d at 853. We therefore conclude that substantial evidence on the record as a whole supports the Board's finding that Siminski was not a confidential employee and was thus entitled to protection under the Act. 28 Having found that Siminski was protected by the Act, we additionally find that substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that the interrogations of Siminski by Diller and Goldner were unlawful and in violation of § 8(a)(1). The questions put to Siminski could reasonably be construed to be threats of reprisal and reasonably created an impression that the employees were under surveillance. Siminski's testimony certainly indicated that she took the interrogations by Goldner to be veiled threats of reprisal for engaging in union activities. 4 The impression that the employees were under surveillance was imparted by Goldner's request of Siminski to attend the meeting and report back to him afterward. Such requests have been held to be unfair labor practices by the Board. See Ayer Lar Sanitarium, supra, 536 F.2d at 47-48. 29 Accordingly, we find that substantial evidence on the record as a whole supports the findings of the Board in their entirety. 30 ORDER ENFORCED.