11th Circuit Issues Major NLRA Supervisor Decision

The Eleventh Circuit  held that the National Labor Relations Board lacked substantial evidence to support its conclusion that licensed practical nurses at a Florida nursing and long-term care facility were employees rather than supervisors. Lakeland Health Care Assocs. v. NLRB, ___F.3d___( 11th Cir., No. 11-12000, 10/2/12).

Finding NLRB improperly certified a United Food and Commercial Workers Union as the bargaining representative for a unit of LPN team leaders, the majority stated that the board “meticulously excluded or disregarded” evidence indicating the LPNs were supervisors outside the protection of the NLRA.

Dissenting, Judge William H. Pryor said the court's own precedents precluded it from “reweighing the evidence” relied on by the board. 

Mitchell H. Rubinstein