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(Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradesworkers Act).
This measure would reverse the September 2006 decision by the Nation Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the Oakwood Healthcare case to expand the definition of "supervisor." This decision by the NLRB has limited the rights of thousands of nurses, both RNs and LPNs, to unionize and particpate in collective bargaining. Last October, the NLRB ruled that many charge nurses are supervisors, even though they have no authority to hire, fire, or discipline other employees. Under these rulings, only 10 percent of a worker's time in a supervisory capacity is enough to lock him or her out of a union. The NLRB's decision has opended the door for widespread abuse of workers in countless industries.
The RESPECT Act would amend the definition of supervisor under the National Labor Relations Act by deleting the terms "assign" and "responsibly to direct' from the definition of supervisor, terms that the NLRB expanded to justify its rulings. The bill would also require that for a worker to be labeled a supervisor, he or she must spend the majority of the workday in a supervisory capacity.
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