## Facts

- A private university in Tacoma, Washington affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America operated as a Lutheran institution and encouraged faith-related student activities, but did not require students or employees to attend religious services.
- A union petitioned for an NLRB-supervised election to represent a unit of full-time and part-time non-tenure-track contingent faculty.
- The university opposed the petition, arguing (1) the Board should decline jurisdiction because the institution is religious, and (2) the contingent faculty were managerial employees excluded from National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) coverage.
- The Regional Director found jurisdiction proper and concluded the petitioned-for contingent faculty were not managerial.
- The Board granted review and invited amicus briefing on jurisdiction over religious colleges and managerial status in higher education.

## Issues

1. When must the NLRB decline jurisdiction over faculty at a religiously affiliated college or university consistent with First Amendment limits identified in Catholic Bishop?
2. Under Yeshiva, when are private-university faculty “managerial employees” excluded from NLRA protection?

## Decision

- The Board affirmed the Regional Director and directed that the petition proceed.
- The Board adopted a two-part test for declining jurisdiction over faculty at religiously affiliated institutions and held the test was not satisfied as to the petitioned-for faculty.
- The Board refined the managerial-status analysis for faculty by focusing on five categories of decision-making and requiring proof of actual control or effective recommendations.
- Applying that framework, the Board held the petitioned-for contingent faculty were not managerial employees and were covered by the NLRA.

## Legal Principles

- The Board will decline jurisdiction over faculty at a religiously affiliated institution only if:
  - the institution holds itself out as providing a religious educational environment; and
  - it holds out the petitioned-for faculty as performing a specific role in creating or maintaining that religious educational environment.
- For faculty managerial status, the Board assesses whether faculty actually control, or make effective recommendations (i.e., recommendations almost always followed without independent administrative review), in five areas:
  - academic programs,
  - enrollment management,
  - finances,
  - academic policy, and
  - personnel policies and decisions.
- In evaluating managerial status, greater weight is given to faculty authority over academic programs, enrollment management, and finances because they affect the institution as a whole; participation that is consultative or advisory is insufficient.

## Conclusion

The Board asserted NLRA jurisdiction over contingent faculty at a religiously affiliated university because the institution did not hold those faculty out as performing specific religious functions, and it held the faculty were nonmanagerial where they lacked actual control or effectively binding authority in core institution-wide decision areas.


Pac. Lutheran Univ., 361 N.L.R.B. No. 157 (2014)