One thing about which unions and employers ordinarily agree is that it is the right and obligation of management to manage. Employers want to manage and unions want to retain the right to claim that the employer did not manage when it should have done so. That makes a recent decision by the NLRB to issue a complaint against a hospital interesting. Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, No. 6-CA-144586, complaint issued 5/27/15.
In 2014, licensed practical nurses and technicians at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital voted for union representation. Before that time, the hospital used an open approach to schedule work hours, with lead technicians taking primary responsibility in each area. Naturally, in the absence of a union, management had the right to review and control schedules.
After the technicians, including lead technicians, elected union representation, hospital management began scheduling the workforce. Scheduling work is A regular and routine prerogative management. Still, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge and conducted a one-day strike, asserting that lead technicians in the bargaining unit had the right to make all schedules. Now the NLRB has issued a complaint in which it asserts that the hospital violated the law by deciding to schedule its own workforce. A hearing is set for August 4.