Unions are getting more aggressive about organizing residents,
interns and house staff working at hospitals. For the last decade,
the law has been that medical interns and residents are considered
employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and have
the right to join a union and engage in collective bargaining.
Boston Medical Center, 330 NLRB 152 (1999). Since that
decision, there has been little successful effort to organize this
unique group of medical providers. In addition, the entire issue
was overshadowed when a Republican-dominated NLRB ruled that
university teaching assistants are not statutory employees with
collective bargaining rights under the NLRA. Brown
University, 342 NLRB 483 (2004). Residents and house staff are
enough like teaching assistants to put the Board's 1999
decision in doubt. That is no longer the case.
Recently, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) filed a
petition for an election among the St. Barnabas Hospital's
interns, residents and fellows, or house staff, at
its hospital in New York City. The Labor Board's Regional
Director directed an election among this petitioned-for group. The
Hospital appealed that decision to the newly-composed National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB), arguing the NLRB should reject such a
petition because so many of the persons involved were like teaching
assistants and that the 2004 Brown University decision was
applicable to this election case.
The NLRB rejected the Employer's claim that it should have
considered the applicability of, which found that, noting that
Boston Medical Center remains the law and that
Brown's reasoning had not been extended to cases
involving medical house staff. St. Barnabas Hospital
(2-RC-23356; 355 NLRB No. 39) (June 4, 2010).
Given the SEIU's increased efforts at organizing such health
care provider groups, teaching hospitals, as well as other
hospitals who use house staff, are well-advised to consider what
efforts they are making to avoid the possible unionization of this
critical component of their health care delivery.
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