National Labor Relations Board v. Legacy Health System

662 F.3d 1124, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2012, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 23245
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 21, 2011
Docket10-72478
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 662 F.3d 1124 (National Labor Relations Board v. Legacy Health System) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Labor Relations Board v. Legacy Health System, 662 F.3d 1124, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2012, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 23245 (9th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

WILLIAM E. SMITH, District Judge:

The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) petitions for enforcement of its order finding that Legacy Health System (Legacy Health) violated sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (the Act), 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3). We hold that, under section 10(e) of the Act, we do not have jurisdiction to hear Legacy Health’s exceptions to the Board’s remedial order, and accordingly, we grant summary enforcement of the Board’s order.

Background

The following facts are gleaned from the Board’s findings of fact, see generally Legacy Health System, 355 NLRB No. 76, 2010 WL 3159238 (Aug. 9, 2010); Legacy Health System, 354 NLRB No. 45, 2009 WL 2031023 (July 13, 2009), which are not challenged by the parties.

Legacy Health is based in the Portland, Oregon area, and it operates five hospitals, a research facility, and a number of clinics and labs. In total, it employs more than 9,000 people. It is party to seven different collective bargaining agreements with various labor unions, including two collective bargaining agreements with the Service Employees International Union, Local 49 (the Union). It also has a number of positions and departments that are not unionized.

For at least nine years, Legacy Health maintained an unwritten policy precluding its employees from simultaneously holding bargaining unit positions and non-bargaining unit positions. Employees were permitted to be employed by Legacy Health in two positions, as long as both positions were union positions or both positions were non-union positions. There is no evidence that Legacy Health prohibited employees from holding positions that were represented by separate bargaining units, and employees regularly held employment with Legacy Health in more than one position.

Once the policy came to the Union’s attention, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge. Based on the Union’s charge, on September 30, 2008, the Regional Director for Region 19 of the Board issued a complaint and notice of hearing, alleging that Legacy Health violated sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act by not allowing its employees to simultaneously hold bargaining unit positions and non-bargaining unit positions. The Board identified in its complaint three employees who had been affected by the policy.

On February 11, 2009, following a hearing and briefing, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a decision concluding that Legacy Health’s policy violated sections 8(a)(1) and (3). The ALJ recommended a remedial order that, in relevant part, ordered Legacy Health to,

[wjithin 14 days from the date of this Order, hire [the three affected employees] in the part-time positions to which they would have been hired but for [Legacy Health’s] enforcement of its unlawful hiring policy, replacing the current occupants of those positions if necessary, and make them whole in the manner set forth in the remedy section of this decision.

Legacy Health System, 354 NLRB No. 45, 2009 WL 2031023, at * 11.

*1126 Thereafter, Legacy Health filed exceptions to the ALJ’s decision. On July 13, 2009, a two-member panel of the Board affirmed the ALJ’s rulings, findings, and conclusions, as modified in its decision, and adopted a modified version of the ALJ’s recommended order. See Legacy Health System, 354 NLRB No. 45, 2009 WL 2031023, at *1-3. In order “to more closely conform to the Board’s standard remedial language,” id. at *1 n. 3, the Board made the following sua sponte modification to the remedial order:

Within 14 days from the date of this Order, offer [the three affected employees] the part-time positions for which they applied and would have been hired but for the unlawful enforcement of its hiring policy against them or, if those positions no longer exist, to substantially equivalent positions, without prejudice to their seniority or any other rights or privileges they would have enjoyed absent the discrimination against them.

Id. at *3 (emphasis added).

On October 21, 2009, the Board filed an application for enforcement with this court. On June 17, 2010, in New Process Steel, L.P. v. NLRB, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2635, 2639-45, 177 L.Ed.2d 162 (2010), the United States Supreme Court held that the Board did not have authority to act as a two-member panel, thereby invalidating by implication the Board’s July 13, 2009 decision in this case. This case was remanded to the Board.

On August 9, 2010, a three-member panel of the Board issued a decision affirming the ALJ’s rulings, findings, and conclusions, and incorporating by reference the modifications set forth in the July 13, 2009 decision. See Legacy Health System, 355 NLRB No. 76, 2010 WL 3159238. The panel also adopted the order issued by the prior two-member panel, for the reasons set forth in the July 13, 2009 decision. Id. Two days later, on August 11, 2010, the Board’s General Counsel applied to this court for enforcement of the order.

Discussion

On appeal, Legacy Health does not challenge the Board’s conclusion that it violated sections 8(a)(1) and (3) of the Act. The Board is, therefore, entitled to summary enforcement of its order with respect to that ruling. NLRB v. Advanced Stretchforming Int’l, Inc., 233 F.3d 1176, 1180 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that the Board is entitled to summary enforcement of unchallenged rulings).

For its part, Legacy Health takes issue only with the Board’s remedial order, arguing that it does not reflect the temporary nature of the employment positions at issue. The Board retorts that this objection was not raised before the Board and that, therefore, the argument is waived.

In the absence of “extraordinary circumstances,” this court does not have jurisdiction to hear arguments that were not urged before the Board, pursuant to section 10(e) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 160(e). See Woelke & Romero Framing, Inc. v. NLRB, 456 U.S. 645, 665, 102 S.Ct. 2071, 72 L.Ed.2d 398 (1982); see also Sever v. NLRB, 231 F.3d 1156, 1171 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that argument is waived where employee did not raise it in its exceptions to ALJ’s decision). Moreover, to preserve an objection to the Board’s remedial order, a party must object to the order with sufficient specificity; it is not enough for a party to object to the remedy generally. See Marshall Field & Co. v. NLRB, 318 U.S. 253, 255, 63 S.Ct. 585, 87 L.Ed.

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662 F.3d 1124, 192 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2012, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 23245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-labor-relations-board-v-legacy-health-system-ca9-2011.