Court Opinion

ID: 9695852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:30:26.153033+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:16.041794
License: Public Domain

EAGEN, Justice
(concurring and dissenting).
While I join in the ruling that the appeal is moot as to Albert Einstein Medical Center, I am compelled to dissent from the affirmance of the Commonwealth Court’s order which reversed the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board’s [Hereinafter: PLRB] determination that interns, residents and clinical fellows were employes of Temple University. The majority of the Court utilizes an improper method of analysis, ignores the statutorily *571mandated standard of review, fails to cite or discuss our prior decisions which have interpreted that standard of review, and incorrectly disposes of this appeal.
The majority reasons that interns, residents and clinical fellows at Temple are not employes because they entered into a relationship with Temple for the primary purpose of fulfilling educational requirements and not for monetary remuneration. Beyond question the subjective motivations of these individuals in entering into a relationship with Temple, i. e., to fulfill educational requirements, is the foundation of the ruling that they are not employes. Assuming that fulfilling educational requirements is the primary purpose of these individuals in entering into a relationship with Temple, the deficiency in the majority’s reasoning is made clear by an examination of comparable situations. Are law clerks, apprentices and journeymen in trades, or, for that matter, any individuals, who enter a relationship, which has indicia of employe status, with the primary purpose of advancing their educational experience such that they may enlarge their knowledge or fulfill statutorily or otherwise mandated requirements to work in a certain capacity, any less employes because of their subjective motivations? Clearly, they are not. Moreover, reasoning that such subjective motivations preclude such individuals from being employes can lead to absurd results.
For instance, a person who wishes to become a certified public accountant must normally complete two years of employment in public accounting as a prerequisite to becoming certified. Act of December 30, 1974, P.L. 1122, No. 362, § 4, 63 P.S. § 9.4 (Supp.1976-77). Thus, under the reasoning employed by the majority, an accountant, who enters an employment relationship with a public accounting firm for the primary purpose of qualifying to become a certified public accountant by meeting a statutorily mandated requirement, would not be an employee of that firm. And while I do not think this Court *572would ever reach such an absurd conclusion, under the reasoning employed in the majority opinion such a conclusion would necessarily follow.
Furthermore, if the primary purpose or subjective motivation of the individuals involved is the criterion for determining employe status, it follows that some interns, residents and clinical fellows, as. well as some accountants, may not be employes while others who are in the same relationship with a hospital or accounting firm may indeed by employes if they are more interested in monetary remuneration. Again, such a result is absurd.
The reasoning in the majority opinion finds support in Cedar-Sinai Medical Center v. Cedar-Sinai Housestaff Association, Case 31-RC-2983, 223 NLRB no. 57, 1975-76 CCH NLRB § 16,690 (1976). But the reasoning employed by the National Labor Relations Board [Hereinafter : NLRB] in that case is subject to the same criticism previously set forth. Moreover, the determination made by the NLRB is contrary to the weight of authority. Regents of the University of Michigan v. Michigan Employment Relations Commission, 389 Mich. 96, 204 N.W.2d 218 (1973); Long Island College Hospital, 33 S.L.R.B. (N.Y.1970); Brooklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, 32 S.L.R.B. 21 (N.Y.1968). Also and significantly, the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission, the only tribunal to consider the issue subsequent to the NLRB’s decision, discussed at length the NLRB’s reasoning and rejected it. Re: City of Cambridge and Cambridge Hospital House Officers Association, No. MCR 2163. In doing so, the Massachusetts Commission relied on the weight of authority set forth above and on the reasoning of the dissenting opinion in Cedar-Sinai, supra. The Massachusetts Commission also considered the reasoning of the Commonwealth Court in this case and rejected it as unpersuasive.
The opinion of the majority also fails to make proper use of whatever guidance may be found in Cedar-Sinai, *573supra. Since the PLRB, which is the comparable administrative agency to the NLRB, has made a determination contrary to Cedar-Sinai, supra, this Court is obligated to defer to the PLRB because of our standard of review, see Public Employe Relations Act, Act of July 23, 1970, P.L. 563, No. 195, art. XV, § 1502, 43 P.S. § 1101.1502 (Supp.1976-77) [Hereinafter: PERA], Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Kaufman Department Stores, Inc., 345 Pa. 398, 400, 29 A.2d 90 (1942) and National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, 322 U.S. 111, 64 S.Ct. 851, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944), and is not at liberty to impose its own views merely because they are compatible with the NLRB’s and incompatible with the PLRB’s.
But before setting forth the proper standard of review and applying it to the facts of this appeal, the reasons for an appellate court’s deference to the PLRB are apparently in need of reiteration. Whether or not an individual is in fact an employe and whether or not an individual is an employe within the meaning of the PERA are often very close questions. The PLRB is familiar with the numerous circumstances and backgrounds of employment relationships in different fields. National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, supra. Further, the PLRB because of this familiarity is in a better position to know when and where the purposes of the PERA will be served than is this Court or the Commonwealth Court. As such, deference to the PLRB is not only important, it is a necessity if the purposes and intent of the Legislature in enacting the PERA are to be advanced.
The majority says the purposes of the PERA will not be advanced by ruling that interns, residents and clinical fellows are employes within the PERA because these individuals have no continuous relationship with Temple. This ignores the fact, established in the record, that these individuals are involved in a substantial way in *574providing essential services to the public. The uninterrupted flow of such services is undoubtedly one of the major purposes of the PERA. See generally, Pittsburgh Joint Collective Bargaining Committee v. City of Pittsburgh, 23 Pa.Cmwlth. 229, 351 A.2d 304 (1976). The PLRB has undoubtedly determined that this purpose and possibly other purposes of the PERA will be advanced by ruling that these individuals, who otherwise are involved in a relationship which the majority recognizes as having indicia of employment status, are employes within the meaning of the PERA. But the present ruling of the majority will frustrate this purpose because the proper standard of review and deference to the expertise of the PLRB has been ignored.
I now turn to the proper standard of review in this case. In order to dispose of this appeal properly, the Court should review the record in order to make two determinations. First, does the evidence support the factual determination that these individuals are employes? Second, if these individuals are in fact employes, then are they employes within the meaning of the PERA? The first is a question of fact; the second is a legal determination involving statutory construction.
THE QUESTION OF FACT
Art. XV, § 1502 of the PERA, 43 P.S. § 1101.1502 (Supp.1976-77), provides:
“[f]indings of the [PLRB] as to the facts, if supported by substantial and legally credible evidence . shall ... be conclusive.”
Moreover,
“[t]his means that it is the function of the [PLRB] not only to appraise conflicting evidence, to determine the credibility of witnesses, and to resolve primary issues of fact, but also to draw inferences from estab*575lished facts and circumstances. Upon judicial review, however, it is the duty of the court to determine whether the findings of the [PLRB] are supported by the substantial and legally credible evidence required by the statute and whether the conclusions deduced therefrom are reasonable and not capricious. . ‘Substantial evidence is more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.’ ‘Substantial evidence . . . must do more than create a suspicion of the existence of the fact to be established’. ‘The rule of substantial evidence is one of fundamental importance and is the dividing line between law and arbitrary power’.” [Citations omitted throughout.]
Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Kaufman Department Stores, Inc., supra at 400, 29 A.2d at 92 (1942). Thus, instantly, as in Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Kaufman Department Stores, Inc., supra, this Court’s sole inquiry in regard to the factual findings should be whether the evidence produced justifies as reasonable and not capricious the conclusion of the PLRB that interns, residents and clinical fellows of Temple Hospital are employes.
Substantial evidence exists in the record to establish that these individuals spend eighty-five to ninety per cent of a work week performing care services and manning clinics and wards; that they are paid wages and pay federal taxes on their incomes; that they give priority to patient care service, rather than class attendance or the more formal aspects of their education; and, that they receive fringe benefits as do other employes. This evidence is substantial and thus can support findings of fact as to these matters and a conclusion from these findings that these individuals are in fact employes is clearly not capricious or unreasonable.
*576Moreover, the reasonableness of this determination is supported by the determinations made by other tribunals in dealing with this question. E. g., see generally, Regents of the University of Michigan v. Michigan Employment Relations Commission, supra; Long Island College Hospital, supra; Brooklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, supra.
Thus, while I think these individuals are also students for other purposes, see Regents of the University of Michigan v. Michigan Employment Relations Commission, supra, I cannot, given the evidence, the PLRB’s determination, and the proper standard of review, find that they are not in fact also employes.
THE QUESTION OF LAW
While I agree with the majority opinion when it states that the statutory definition of employe, art. Ill, Section 301(2) of the PERA, is extremely broad and thus requires interpretation, I do not agree that the subjective motivation or primary purpose of interns, residents and clinical fellows when entering into a relationship with Temple should determine whether they are employes. Such an analysis can lead to absurd results, see supra at 2, and fails to give adequate consideration to the purpose of the PERA, the determinations of the PLRB, and the objective circumstances surrounding the relationship, which, under the analysis set forth in the majority opinion, could be an employment relationship in all respects except for the subjective motivation of the employes. „
In my view, the criteria to be applied are objective, that is, regardless of the individual’s intention in entering into a relationship with a public employer, the question remains whether the objective circumstances incident to the relationship are such that the rights, privileges, and duties of the employer, individuals, and the public require the protections and procedures provided by the PERA. The application of these criteria requires *577a consideration of the purposes of the PERA.1 A major purpose of the PERA is to provide a procedure for the settlement of labor disputes between public employers and their employes so that the public services on which the people depend will not be interrupted unnecessarily. See generally, Pittsburgh Joint Collective Bargaining Committee v. City of Pittsburgh, supra. And although the question of whether the purpose or purposes of the PERA will be advanced by its application to certain circumstances and relationships is one of law, I think some degree of deference must be allotted to the PLRB in dealing with this question in specific circumstances. As the Supreme Court of the United States stated in National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, supra at 130, 64 S.Ct. at 860:
“Everyday experience in the administration of the statute gives it [here the PLRB] familiarity with the circumstances and backgrounds of employment relationships in various industries, with the abilities and needs of the workers for self organization and collective action, and with the adaptability of collective bargaining for the peaceful settlement of their disputes with employers. The experience thus acquired must be brought frequently to bear on the question who is an employee under the Act.
Hence in reviewing the Board’s ultimate conclusions, it is not the court’s function to substitute its own inferences of fact for the Board’s, when the latter have support in the record. Undoubtedly questions of statutory interpretation, especially when arising in the first instance in judicial proceedings, are for the courts to resolve, giving appropriate weight to the judgment of *578those whose special duty is to administer the questioned statute. But where the question is one of specific application of a broad statutory term in a proceeding in which the agency administering the statute must determine it initially, the reviewing court’s function is limited. . . . [T] he Board’s determination that specified persons are ‘employees’ under this Act is to be accepted if it has ‘warrant in the record’ and a reasonable basis in law.” [Citations omitted throughout.]
And see, Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Sand’s Restaurant Corporation, 429 Pa. 479, 240 A.2d 801 (1968); Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board v. Butz, 411 Pa. 360, 192 A.2d 707 (1963); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO v. Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, 17 Pa.Cmwlth. 83, 330 A.2d 300 (1975).
In making its determination that these individuals were employes within the PERA, the PLRB has apparently determined that a dispute between these interns, residents and clinical fellows and their employer could substantially disrupt public service. . This determination has support in the record in that these individuals provide services to the public during most of the work week. Thus, the PLRB’s determination that they are employes within the purview of the PERA has “warrant in the record” and has a “reasonable basis in law.” Since these individuals are factually employes and, as such, are within the express terms of the statute and since they are involved in a relationship which if disrupted by labor disputes could result in the frustration of an express purpose of the PERA, I believe that the PLRB’s determination should be sustained.
Moreover, even if this Court were to review the question as one of law without granting a degree of deference to the judgment of the PLRB, I would not be prepared to say that, given the broad statutory definition of employe *579in the PERA and its purposes, these individuals are not within its purview since they are in a position of providing basic public service, the noninterrupted flow of which is a paramount consideration of the PERA, and since they are involved in a relationship with the hospital that exhibits so many of the traditional characteristics of employment.
I dissent.

. Art. I, Section 101 of the PERA, 43 P.S. 1101-101 (Supp.1975-76) sets forth the purposes of the PERA and those include:
“establishing procedures to provide for the protection of the rights of the public employe, the public employer and the public at large.” [Emphasis added.]