Section 5 Supervisors

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

In Golden Valley Memorial Hospital District v. State Board of Mediation, 559 S.W.2d 581 (Mo. App. W.D. 1977), the court stated that the General Assembly did not intend to use the term “employee” in the sections of the Public Sector Labor Law to designate everyone on the public body’s payroll. The court stated:

The statute does not define the word employee; however, the term employee cannot be literally read to include every person on the payroll of a public body. As stated in City of Milwaukee v. Wisconsin Employ. Rel. Com., 43 Wis.2d 596,168 N.W.2d 809,812 (1969): “someone has to sit on the city’s side of the bargaining table.”

Id. at 583.

The court went on to say:

It is, therefore, the duty of the Board, by appropriate findings of fact to identify those employees, if any, whose duties involve acting directly or indirectly in the interest of the employer in relation to other employees. Such employees shall be excluded from the bargaining unit.

Id.

In City of Columbia v. State Board of Mediation, 605 S.W.2d 192, 194 (Mo. App. W.D. 1980), the court stated that the State Board of Mediation performs a fact-finding function to determine if those in supervisory positions are, by the nature of their work activities, “more closely identified with the labor force or with management.”

The Board has developed a set of factors by which it determines whether an employee is a “supervisor” to be excluded from the bargaining unit. Western Mo. Pub. Employees, Local 1812 v. Jackson County (Department of Corrections), Public Case No. 90 (1976). The factors are:

24354. The authority to effectively recommend the hiring, promotion, transfers discipline, or discharge of employees

24354. The authority to direct and assign the work force

24354. The number of employees supervised and the number of other persons exercising greater, similar, or lesser authority over the same employees

24354. The level of pay, including an evaluation of whether the supervisor is paid for his or her skill or for the supervision of employees

24354. Whether the supervisor is primarily supervising an activity or is primarily supervising employees

24354. Whether the supervisor is a working supervisor or whether the supervisor spends a substantial majority of time supervising employees

24354. The amount of independent judgment and discretion exercised in the supervision of employees

As the Board noted in Carpenters’ District, Local 795 v. St. Louis County, Public Works Department, Public Case No. R 98-027 (1999), “the inquiry in each case is whether these factors are present in sufficient combination and degree to warrant the conclusion that the position is supervisory.” In fact, in International Ass’n of Fire Fighters v. City of Gladstone, Public Case No. R 98-004 (1998), the Board recognized that it has never found supervisory status where the employee only met one of the criteria listed and noted that it is easier to be labeled a supervisor under the...