D.R. NO. 78-20

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

BEFORE THE DIRECTOR OF REPRESENTATION

In the Matter of

CRANFORD BOARD OF EDUCATION,

Public Employer,

-and-	Docket No. CU-77-43

CRANFORD EDUCATION ASSOCIATION,

Petitioner.

Appearances:

For the Public Employer

Weinberg, Manoff & Dietz, Esqs.

(Irwin Weinberg, Of Counsel)

For the Petitioner

Ronald Harvey, NJEA Field Representative

DECISION

Pursuant to a Notice of Hearing to resolve a question concerning the composition of a collective negotiations unit represented by the Cranford Education Association (the "Association"), a hearing was held before Arnold H. Zudick, on June 22, 1977, at which time all parties were given an opportunity to examine and cross-examine witnesses, present evidence, and argue orally. Neither party filed a brief, and the Hearing Officer issued his Report and Recommendation on September 20, 1977. A copy is annexed hereto and made a part hereof. No exceptions to the Hearing Officer's Report have been filed.

The undersigned has considered the entire record including the Hearing Officer's Report and Recommendation and the transcript and on the basis thereof finds as follows:

1.	The Cranford Board of Education (the "Board") is a Public Employer within the meaning of the New Jersey Employer-
Employee Relations Act, N.J.S.A. 34:13A-1 et seq., as amended (the "Act"), is the employer of employees involved herein, and is subject to the Act's provisions.

2.	The Cranford Education Association is an employee representative within the meaning of the Act and is subject to its provisions.

3.	The Cranford Education Association is the exclusive representative of a negotiations unit consisting of all secretaries and clerks employed by the Board. The Board has filed the instant Clarification of Unit Petition seeking a determination that four secretaries -- the Secretary to the Superintendent, the Secretary to the Board Secretary/Business Manager, and two Secretaries to the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel are confidential employees, as defined in N.J.S.A. 34:13-3(g)1/ and, consequently must be excluded from the negotiations unit. Accordingly, a Clarification of Unit Petition having been filed and there existing a question concerning the composition of a negotiations unit, the matter is appropriately before the undersigned for determination.

4.	Subsequent to the opening of the hearing the parties stipulated that the Secretary to the Superintendent and Secretary to the School Board Secretary/Business Manager are confidential employees, as that term is defined under the Act. Therefore, the testimonial evidence presented at the hearing was limited to the issue of the claimed confidential status of the two Secretaries to the Assistant Superintendent.

5.	The Hearing Officer found that the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel performs a wide range of management responsibilities including participation in collective negotiations sessions, the preparation of negotiation proposals and documentation on behalf of the Board, the processing of employee terminations, and the implementation of Board directives. The Hearing Officer concluded that the Assistant Superintendent is intimately involved in the preparation and implementation of labor relations policies, especially in the area of collective negotiations. Further, the Hearing Officer found that the Assistant Superintendent's two secretaries are both routinely required to perform secretarial duties with regard to the confidential labor relations material prepared by the Assistant Superintendent. Accordingly, the Hearing Officer recommended that the two secretaries be designated as confidential employees and excluded from the unit of secretaries and clerks.

Having reviewed the entire record, the Hearing Officer's Report and Recommendations, and the lack of any party's exceptions to the Report, the undersigned finds that there is ample record evidence to support the Hearing Officer's findings, and these are specifically adopted. Moreover, the Hearing Officer's conclusion and recommendation that the employees in dispute are confidential employees is consistent with and in accordance with prior standards enumerated by the Commission in previous decisions involving confidential employees.2/ The record reveals that the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel performs functions on behalf of the Board which entail the preparation of confidential negotiations material, and that the two secretaries assigned to the Assistant Superintendent have, in the exercise of their duties, handled such confidential material and would be expected to continue to have access to and knowledge of such material in the regular exercise of their secretarial duties in the future.

Accordingly, the undersigned finds that the two secretaries to the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel are confidential employees within the meaning of the Act. The undersigned, additionally, accepts the parties' stipulation that the Secretary to the Superintendent, and Secretary to the School Board Secretary/Business Manager are confidential employees within the meaning of the Act.

Inasmuch as these employees are confidential employees, they are excluded from the Association's secretarial unit immediately upon this determination.3/

BY ORDER OF THE DIRECTOR

OF REPRESENTATION

/s/Carl Kurtzman, Director

of Representation

DATED:	November 3, 1977

Trenton, New Jersey