Opinion ID: 432103
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Solicitation of surveillance.

Text: 19 The ALJ found that the hospital instructed Gilbert, a supervisor, to surveil its employees' union activities and inform it with respect thereto, and held that this violated the Act. The Board accepted these findings. 20 The ALJ's conclusions were based on the following findings. A supervisor asked Gilbert if he knew that the union was outside handing out handbills and inquired whether he knew any of the employees involved. Gilbert responded that he knew of the distribution but did not know any of the employees. The supervisor identified by name three of the employees involved and in Gilbert's presence requested the particular location where one of them worked. The supervisor then instructed Gilbert to keep his eye on the employees and to report the matter to security director King. Gilbert did so by leaving a note in King's desk, as he had been instructed to do, so that the names could be turned over to the hospital's attorneys and would not be detected if the hospital's files were subpoenaed to court. 6 21 The supervisor did not merely request Gilbert to pass on information that had innocently come into his possession. See P.R. Mallory Co., Inc., 175 N.L.R.B. 308, 313 (1969). She did not merely remind him to do his job as a guard. There is no evidence that what the employees were doing was illegal or improper or interfered with the hospital or its patients or visitors. Giving a supervisor the names of the employees and information on where at least one of them worked, followed by instructions to keep an eye on them and to report information in a manner that would conceal it from attorneys for the hospital and keep it beyond the reach of legal proceedings, justifies the Board's conclusion that the surveillance, though solicited to be performed by a supervisor, violated the Act. Requiring surveillance of union activities by a supervisor violates Sec. 8(a)(1) if it interferes with the organizational rights of employees. Belcher Towing Co. v. NLRB, 614 F.2d 88 (5th Cir.1980). An explicit finding of interference is unnecessary where an inference of interference may reasonably be drawn. Id. at 91 n. 4. 22 We reject the contention of the hospital that this issue was not fully and fairly litigated. Paragraph VII of the complaint alleged that the hospital solicited its employee to surveil. At the hearing the hospital proved that Gilbert was a supervisor, and the Board does not contest this. The general counsel did not amend the complaint but during the presentation of his case stated that Gilbert's testimony was being offered in proof of paragraph VII and that he believed the conduct of the supervisor requiring the surveillance was unlawful even if the request was made to a supervisor. The hospital had adequate notice of the gist of the charges against it, i.e., that one of its staff had sought to surveil the union activities through another member of its staff, and it had fair notice during the hearing of both the facts relied upon and the Board's legal theory. Its failure to call the requesting supervisor as a witness to her conversations with Gilbert does not vitiate the validity of the findings and conclusions reached. 23