PROFESSIONALS UNDER THE LABOR MANAGEMENT RELATIONS ACT: LESSONS FROM THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

NICHOLAS A. BEADLES II AND CLYDE SCOTT


DOI: 10.2190/APH6-CKVU-DBNE-GNXQ

Abstract

In 1991 the Supreme Court upheld the National Labor Relations Board's decision to employ substantive rule-making when determining bargaining units in acute-care hospitals. While the rule provides some needs clarity in unit determination, the determination of whether an individual is appropriately designated as a professional must still be made on a case-by-case basis. Given the importance of unit determination to election outcomes, this issue will continue to be decided by the board and the courts. This article takes advantage of the complexity of hospital job classifications by using these cases to summarize and explicate the criteria the board applies in determining the professional status of an employee.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.