UPMC Hospitals Unlawfully Dominated Worker Council, NLRB Finds

A Pennsylvania hospital violated federal labor law by dominating an employee council for environmental services workers that was actually started by hospital executives and financed and supported by the employer, the National Labor Relations Board ruled.

The 2-1 decision, released Aug. 30, illustrates that while employers may benefit from inviting employees to discuss issues of workplace quality and efficiency, management needs to be aware of the National Labor Relations Act’s limits on management dealings with a “labor organization.”

The NLRA prohibits an employer from dominating or interfering with the administration or formation of a labor organization. Democrats Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran said UPMC’s Presbyterian and Shadyside hospitals’ creation and dealings with the ESS Employee Council constituted an unfair labor practice. The employee council hasn’t been active for several years, but the board ordered the hospitals to ensure that the council is “completely disestablished” and not simply replaced by a successor group.

Republican board member William J. Emanuel dissented from the finding of illegal domination. He said employees, not the hospitals, controlled the council and its meetings. “Although the ESS Employee Council was created by management,” Emanuel said, “it otherwise falls well short of the Board’s description of domination or interference.”

Council Was ‘Labor Organization’

The hospitals argued that the ESS wasn’t a labor organization under the NLRA, but the board members unanimously rejected that claim. The NLRA defines a labor organization as any organization in which employees participate and which exists “in whole or in part” for the purpose of dealing with an employer on labor disputes, wages, hours, or working conditions.

Presbyterian and Shadyside claimed the employee council only discussed quality and efficiency issues with management representatives, but the board said the evidence showed “bilateral dealings” on employee tasks, hospital dispatch practices, and the implementation of an employee award program.

Pearce and McFerran said an administrative law judge found the hospitals contributed significant financial and other support for the council, and paid employees for attending council meetings, which were held in a managers’ conference room until employees lost interest in the council. Concluding that the council wouldn’t have existed without the employer’s active involvement, Pearce and McFerran found the organization was unlawfully dominated by UPMC Pesbyterian and Shadyside.

NLRB attorneys represented the board’s general counsel. Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C. represented UPMC. Claudia Davidson and Kathy Krieger represented SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

The case is UPMC, 2018 BL 313498, 366 N.L.R.B. No. 185, 8/27/18.