348 Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofi t Organizations
promote, reward, transfer, furlough, lay off, recall, suspend, discipline,
or remove employees and to adjust their grievances or recommend such
action. However, there is an exception in the case of nurses as supervisors.
On October 3, 2006, the NLRB ruled that nurses with full - time respon-
sibility for assigning fellow hospital workers to particular tasks are super-
visors under federal labor law and thus not eligible to be represented by
unions. In the Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. and International Union United Automobile,
Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), AFL - CIO (2006)
decision, the board changed course and now interprets Section 2(11) in
a way that makes it easier for health care employers to argue that charge
nurses are statutory supervisors who should not be included in a bargain-
ing unit of registered nurses. The Oakwood decision focused primarily on
three of the Section 2(11) factors: assign, responsibly direct, and indepen-
dent judgment. This decision may have broad applications to supervisory
employees in all private industries that fall under the Labor - Management
Relations Act, 1947, as amended.
Professional employees perform work of a predominantly intellectual,
nonstandardized nature. The work must require the use of discretion
and independent judgment, and knowledge that is customarily acquired
through college or university attendance. Technical employees perform
work of a technical nature that requires the use of independent discretion
and special training. They may have acquired their training in college, in
technical schools, or through on - the - job training.
Public safety offi cers often receive special treatment. Some states have
separate statutes for police offi cers and fi refi ghters, and others include them
in municipal or general statutes. Some states have statutes that require
police offi cers to be in units composed only of police offi cers, and others
require the same for fi refi ghters. This special treatment is meant to ensure
the community ’ s safety. In an effort to standardize collective bargaining
for public safety offi cers, on July 17, 2007, the House of Representatives
passed the Public Safety Employer - Employee Cooperation Act by a vote
of 314 to 97. It requires all state and local governments to engage in collec-
tive bargaining with their police, fi re, and EMS personnel. The act would
establish a national collective bargaining system for personnel to be
governed by the FLRA. If enacted, state legislatures would have time
to pass or modify their own public safety collective bargaining statutes.
If those statutes meet certain minimum criteria as outlined in the act,
the FLRA would abstain from exercising jurisdiction over those particu-
lar states. If, however, a state does not pass or amend its statute to be