## Facts

- Oakwood Healthcare, Inc. operated an acute-care hospital employing registered nurses (RNs) across multiple patient-care units with an established management hierarchy of nursing supervisors.
- A union petitioned to represent a bargaining unit of all RNs, including “charge nurses.”
- Some RNs served as permanent charge nurses (acting as charge nurse every shift they worked); others served as rotating charge nurses (acting as charge nurse only on some shifts); some RNs never served as charge nurses.
- Charge nurses oversaw unit operations and directed the work of other staff (including RNs, LPNs, nursing assistants, technicians, and paramedics), while also performing patient-care duties.
- The Regional Director concluded the charge nurses were not statutory supervisors and directed an election including them; the employer sought Board review, and ballots were impounded pending resolution.
- On review, the Board solicited briefing on the meaning of “assign,” “responsibly to direct,” and “independent judgment” in light of Supreme Court guidance concerning supervisory status.

## Issues

1. How should “assign,” “responsibly to direct,” and “independent judgment” in NLRA § 2(11) be defined for determining supervisory status?
2. Whether permanent charge nurses are statutory supervisors because they regularly assign or responsibly direct other employees using independent judgment.
3. Whether rotating charge nurses become statutory supervisors merely because they occasionally serve as charge nurses, and what “regular” exercise of supervisory authority requires.

## Decision

- The Board adopted interpretive definitions of “assign,” “responsibly to direct,” and “independent judgment” for § 2(11) analysis.
- The Board held that permanent charge nurses who regularly make staffing/patient assignments using independent judgment are supervisors and must be excluded from the RN bargaining unit.
- The Board held that rotating charge nurses are not supervisors solely due to occasional charge duty; supervisory status requires regular, non-sporadic exercise of § 2(11) authority with independent judgment.
- The case was resolved as a representation decision determining which charge nurses were eligible for inclusion in the bargaining unit.

## Legal Principles

- “Assign” under § 2(11) means designating an employee to a place (e.g., unit or department), a time (e.g., shift), or significant overall duties; it does not include isolated, ad hoc clinical instructions.
- “Responsibly to direct” requires both direction of other employees and accountability for their performance, such that adverse consequences may follow for the directing employee if tasks are not properly performed.
- “Independent judgment” involves evaluative decisionmaking free from others’ control, formed by discerning and comparing data; action that is routine, clerical, or tightly controlled by detailed protocols does not qualify.
- Professional or technical judgment in delivering care does not alone establish supervisory status; the employee must use independent judgment while performing a listed § 2(11) function in the employer’s interest.
- Employees who rotate into charge roles are supervisors only if they regularly and substantially exercise § 2(11) authority; sporadic or de minimis performance of charge duties is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The Board clarified key § 2(11) terms governing supervisory status and applied those definitions to distinguish permanent charge nurses who regularly make independent staffing assignments (excluded as supervisors) from rotating charge nurses whose intermittent charge service, without regular supervisory authority, generally does not remove them from bargaining-unit eligibility.


In re Oakwood Healthcare, Inc., 348 N.L.R.B. 686 (2006)