Golden Crest Healthcare Center v. United Steelworkers of America, AFLCIO, CLC

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in this case that Golden Crest Healthcare Center (GCHC), a subsidiary of Beverly Enterprises-Minnesota, improperly designated rotating charge nurses as supervisors. The ruling defines the types of supervisory activity in a nursing setting that will be considered as managerial. A nurse who regularly performs activities that exercise independent judgment to direct other workers will be considered a manager, and thus lose eligibility to form or participate in union activities or negotiations.

The NLRB states that a charge nurse who does not have authority to enforce supervisory decisions should not be counted as managerial personnel. This decision covers cases in which nurses in an organization at times use independent judgment to to send workers home, call workers in, assign workers to specific locations. However, the charge nurses lacked authority to enforce action or initiate disciplinary action. In this situation, a nurse who performs supervisory duties as an agent of a person with enforcement authority should considered as non-supervisory personnel.