Opinion ID: 432103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interrogation by supervisor Vann.

Text: 10 On September 1 supervisor Vann was at the nurses' station on third [floor] main, an obstetrical ward that has many visitors. There had been thefts of billfolds from both patients and employees on that floor. On the floor is a locker room used by nurses for, among other things, storing their purses. Among Vann's duties was policing the locker room to see that no one entered that she did not recognize. She thought that the locker room was empty. She heard the locker room door open, looked up, and saw a nurse whom she did not recognize walk to her station. She tried to stop the nurse with an excuse me. The nurse kept walking; Vann got up and followed her and stopped her down the hallway with another excuse me. 11 Vann asked the nurse if she had just come out of the locker room, and the nurse turned around to face Vann and answered that she had. Vann noticed papers that the nurse had in her hand and recognized them as union literature. Vann then asked what the nurse was doing there and whether she had left some of the literature in the locker room. The nurse laughed and replied that she had and that she could do anything she wanted in a non-patient area on her own time. Then Vann asked for her name and whether she was on her lunch time or break time, and the nurse gave her name, Hildreth, and stated that she was on her lunch break. Vann asked where she worked, to which she responded seventh main, and Vann thanked her and walked away. 12 The nurse was the same Hildreth who had been involved in the union button incident. Vann did not recognize Hildreth as anyone she knew, even after Hildreth identified herself, and did not reprimand her for leaving literature in the locker room; in fact, she neither reprimanded nor scolded Hildreth in any way. There was no connection shown between this questioning of Hildreth and her prior union activities. The incident occurred on the last day of Hildreth's employment with the hospital, but her employment ended for reasons unrelated to her union activities or to the incident--she resigned to marry and move to Chicago. 13 The ALJ found that the questioning was an isolated incident, not part of any systematic or intensive interrogation, and that Hildreth gave truthful answers without fear of reprisal. 4 14 The ALJ found that the facts did not rise to the level of coercion. The Board accepted the ALJ's findings of fact but disagreed with his conclusion. It recognized that the propriety of Vann's effort to police the area could not be questioned but found that she exceeded her policing function. This conclusion was based upon, first, the fact that after Vann recognized that Hildreth was holding union literature she asked questions relating to Hildreth's union activities, including inquiries as to why she was in the area and whether she had distributed leaflets in the locker room. And, second, following Hildreth's assertion that she could distribute literature on her own time, Vann pursued the issue by asking whether she was on lunch time or break and asking her name and her work location. Third, Vann did not inform Hildreth of her purpose and did not mention the theft problem or her policing function. The Board also found that the ALJ erred in relying on the pleasant atmosphere surrounding the encounter. As its ultimate conclusion the Board found that viewing the record as a whole Vann's questions focused on Hildreth's union activity and were unrelated to security considerations. 15 We recognize the Board's expertise in events of the work place, but neither expertise nor the record supports its conclusion in this instance. The reasonable way for Vann to attempt to carry out her security task was to find out whether the unknown and unidentified person had been in the locker room, what she claimed to have been doing there, who she was, or purported to be, and, if she claimed to be an employee of the hospital, where she claimed to work. Necessarily implied in the Board's ultimate conclusion is an unstated premise that once the unidentified person was seen to have union literature in her hand and stated that she had been distributing it in the locker room, Vann could ask nothing more about her name, her activities, or her work station in the hospital. Neither the record nor common sense supports a conclusion that once it was revealed that Hildreth purported to be acting to further union interests additional questions were unrelated to security considerations. To Vann, Hildreth was an unknown person, and, in a high theft area, emerging from a place that Vann was obligated to police and in which employees stored their purses. Hildreth's right to be in the locker room was neither known nor apparent. Her assertions of a right to be in the locker room did not establish that she actually had such a right; nor did it forbid questions about her assertion. Vann was not merely permitted but was obligated to pursue questioning sufficiently to satisfy herself whether Hildreth's purported status and purported activity as a person distributing union literature were her actual status and activity. 5 16 Vann did pursue the questioning, and presumably was satisfied of Hildreth's bona fides. We do not suggest that Hildreth's actual status and actual activity were any different than she represented them to be. We only hold that Vann could--indeed was obligated to--inquire. 17 The Board's conclusion cannot be supported by Vann's not having told Hildreth of the theft problem and of her policing function. The questions asked by Vann were valid security-based inquiries whether or not Hildreth purported to be acting for union purposes; they bore no anti-union taint and required no explanation. 18