Bill Schurgin and James Cho Published in Executive Counsel

In the January/February 2007 issue of Executive Counsel, Bill and James address the decision in late 2006 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to clarify who is a supervisor. The article, "When Does an Employee Become a Supervisor," notes the NLRB's decision provides guidelines for "determining whether employees who do not have hiring or firing responsibilities, but who do regularly assign work to or responsibly direct other employees, are supervisors." Under the NLRB Act, a supervisor is defined as any individual who has specific authorities [among others: to hire, fire, transfer, promote, assign or reward an employee], uses independent judgment, and exercises the judgment in the interest of the employer. The NLRB considers that individual a supervisor for representation purposes, and that person cannot be represented by a union. They write that the guidelines established by the NLRB "provide an important opportunity for employers to evaluate the supervisory status of various groups of their workforce leadership"... and "provide a clear set of guidelines that can be applied to a 21st century workforce."