2. Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 153, AFL-CIO is a public employee representative within the meaning of the Act.

3. The University consists of campuses at Newark, Piscataway and Camden. The Newark campus houses the Medical and Dental Schools and University Hospital. The Piscataway campus is composed of a section of the Medical School which affiliates with Middlesex Hospital. There are seven collective negotiations units at the campuses. Teamsters Local 97 represents about 2500 unskilled and clerical employees. Operating Engineers represents approximately 120 employees in skilled trades and the engineers who

operate the power plants. The Committee of Interns and Residents represents approximately 150 employees. Two collective negotiations units representing the faculty; Allied Health Professions, N.J.E.A. and the A.A.U.P. There are also two public safety units; Local 153 represents approximately 65 security officers and FOP, Lodge 74 represents approximately 75 police officers (T9).

4. In approximately June 1982, the public safety intern program was started to provide prospective police officers on-the-job training concurrent with their attendance at the police academy in either Essex or Middlesex County (T13, T14). ^1/ Interns are trained in self-defense, martial arts, laws of arrest and are given the opportunity to work along side of police officers (T25). Their on-the-job training has been successful because the failure rate at the police academy has been reduced (T26).

The public intern is not a permanent position. John Love, the Assistant Director of Public Safety at the University, asserted it is "a temporary halting area for a maximum of one year" (T20). During that period, the intern works with a commissioned officer on patrol routes and witnesses arrests, attends court appearances, and receives "background information." The intern does not carry a weapon nor has the power to arrest and issue summonses (T20). Interns do not in fact make arrests but sometimes assist the

1/ The parties stipulated that the petitioned-for titles are "public safety interns" (T61).

The security officer is assigned a stand post, i.e. he or she is assigned certain locations at building entrances, lobbies, and parking lots. Unlike interns, security officers do not have to be United States citizens or possess any specific educational background. Interns are sometimes assigned to stand post with security officers as a form of training (T22).

Interns are trained in boxing, martial arts, and the use of night sticks. Security officers do not receive comparable training. Interns may be selected from the ranks of security officer or solicited from outside the University.

After an intern has successfully completed the academy course and passed all the other background checks, he or she is commissioned as a police officer and is included in the collective negotiations unit represented by the FOP. The Camden campus has approximately six officers, Piscataway has about seventeen and Newark has about forty-two. At the time of hearing, the Piscataway and Newark campuses each had about four interns (T27). Security officers receive no firearms training and are never assigned to

2/ The parties stipulated that the interns are not "policemen" within the meaning of the Act and the evidence proffered at the hearing fully supports the stipulation. See County of Gloucester v. Public Employment Relations Commission , 107 N.J. Super. 150 (App. Div. 1969), aff'd 55 N.J . 333 (1976), County of Warren, P.E.R.C. No. 86-111, 12 NJPER 357 (& 17134 1986).

Security officers and interns wear different badges than police officers. The security officers and interns wear identical badges. The security officer wears a light blue shirt; interns wear dark blue shirts.

Raymond Bynum is a security officer at the University where he has been employed for twelve years. He is also chief shop steward of Local 153. Bynum testified that security officers are assigned to the Hospital emergency room. At roll call of the security officers, interns are assigned to accompany some of the officers. Security officers do not carry weapons nor go on delivery or pickups to and from the banks with police officers. Security officers do not patrol the campus with police officers. Security officers also do not train interns in filling out crime reports, etc. Interns and security officers work the same shifts. The first shift is 11:30 p.m. to 8 a.m.; second shift runs from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.; and the final shift runs from 3:30 p.m. to 12 midnight. Roll call is taken during the one half hour overlap (T73). Bynum also asserted that the intern position is a "temporary basis to await becoming a police officer. It's not a final position. When he enters that position he has the goal of leaving it" (T76). R-1 lists the 57 public safety interns hired since 1981, including their hiring dates and employment status under the category, "Police officer." All interns have been commissioned as

officers, terminated, "demoted" to security officers or are awaiting entrance to the academy. Forty-two of forty-six interns have been commissioned, terminated or demoted within one year of their date of hire. Two were commissioned within thirteen months of their date of hire, one commissioned within sixteen months of the date of hire and one, in an anomalous circumstance explained in R-1, was commissioned within two and one-half years of the date of hire. Eleven interns are attending the academy (at the time of hearing) and would presumably be commissioned or terminated within one year of their dates of hire. Three others requested later dates to begin academy training: their commission or termination dates were uncertain at the time of hearing. The IUE presented no evidence that contradicted the contents of R-1.

3/ Public safety interns are "public employees" within the meaning of the Act, which defines that term as "any person holding a position, by appointment or contract of employment in the service of a public employer, except elected officials, members of boards and Commissions, managerial executives and confidential employees". N.J.S.A . 34:13A-3(d). Although interns are "employees" under the Act, they may not be entitled to organize and collectively negotiate if they do possess "sufficient interest in their employment relationship" with the University. See Rutgers, the State University (residence counselors), P.E.R.C. No. 82-55, 8 NJPER 28 ( & 13012 1981).

4/ The eligibility of students to be exclusively represented in a collective negotiations unit was analyzed in Rutger s (residence counselors). The Commission noted in a subsequent case that their employment status was tied to their student responsibilities in contrast to a "strictly employment" relationship between faculty and the employer. Somerset Cty. College, P.E.R.C. No. 87-129, 13 NJPER ( 1987). Notwithstanding any imprecise analogies between students and these interns and an educational institution and the police training academy, nothing in the record established that the interns have anything but a strict employment or economic relationship to the University. See also St. Clare's Hosp. & Health Center, 229 NLRB 1000, 95 LRRM 1180 (1977).

Temporary employees are generally ineligible to vote unless they have a reasonable expectation of reemployment and a substantial interest in working conditions at the employer's place of business. See, for example, Morris, The Developing Labor Law, at 387 (2nd ed. 1983) and Schlossberg and Scott, Organizing and the Law , at 248 (1st ed. 1983). However, the Commission has held that employees hired by municipalities under the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) who share a community of interest with other regular employees are not ineligible as temporary employees. Passaic Cty. Freeholders Bd., D.R. No. 78-29, 4 NJPER 8 ( & 4066 1977); Tp. of Mine Hill , D.R. No. 79-4, 4 NJPER 297 ( & 4141 1978), req. for recon. den. P.E.R.C. No. 79-8, 4 NJPER 416 ( & 4186 1978). In Passaic , the Director held that CETA employees had the right to organize and collectively negotiate. He noted:

there is no provision in the CETA act, or regulations provided thereunder, requiring the automatic termination of a CETA employee upon the expiration of the CETA grant. To the contrary, CETA encourages the

absorption of CETA employees into the regular work force, utilizing the employer's own funding. Thus, the indefinite term of a CETA participant's employment is attributable to the continued availability of federal funding and the ability of the local unit of government to substitute its own funding. Notwithstanding the indefinite nature of employment, the record indicates that in actual experience, of the three CETA employees identified in the County's Public Works Department, two have been in employment for over a year, and a third for over two years. It therefore appears that the claimed indefiniteness of CETA employment relates primarily to the continued availability of funding; and, while there is no guarantee of continued employment without federal funding, such employees do nevertheless have a sufficient regularity in their employment relationship to be entitled to the protections of the Act and the right to negotiate with their employer as to their terms and conditions of employment, subject to any restrictions that the federal legislation imposes upon the employment relationship. [ Id] at 10.

I find that public safety interns are temporary employees not entitled to organize and collectively negotiate under the Act. ^5/ Unlike units of adjunct faculty or lifeguards found

5/ Inasmuch as the interns are seeking a separate collective negotiations unit, my recommendation does not divest them of limited protection under our Act. The Commission explained in Rutgers (residence counselors):
The NLRB has consistently drawn the distinction between an employee's status with respect to an appropriate bargaining unit and his or her status as an "employee" within Section 2(3) of the Act. See e.g. Oak Apparel, Inc., 218 NLRB 701 (1975). The Board emphasized that were this distinction forgotten, employers could discriminate with impunity against temporary or casual employees who are not members of any appropriate bargaining unit. Id . Consistent with NLRB precedent, Residence Counselors, although they may not collectively negotiate, are entitled to the protections of this Act and can avail themselves of the unfair practice jurisdiction of the

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My finding is consistent with the Director's decision in Passaic , where there was merely a claimed definiteness of CETA employment in the face of employees actually working one to two years and where nothing in the enabling legislation required "automatic termination." Interns, by contrast, are almost always terminated, demoted or commissioned within one year of their hiring date. In the rare instances when interns are hired for more than one year, they face a certain termination date upon completion of or dismissal from a police academy training ( See R-1).

I also rely upon Trustees of Stevens Inst. of Technology, 22 NLRB 16, 91 LRRM 1087 (1976),^6/ where a visiting instructor

5/ Footnote Continued From Previous Page

Commission when their rights are violated. See N.J.S.A. 34:13A-5.4(a)(1) et seq . Similarly, the Association, though not entitled to negotiate on behalf of these employees, may represent them in asserting other protections guaranteed by the Act. [ Id. at 30]

6/ In interpreting the Act, the New Jersey Supreme Court has suggested that the experience and adjudications under the

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From the outset of his employment at Stevens, [the instructor] was apprised of the limited one-year duration of his contract. In these circumstances, we find that [the instructor] was merely a temporary employee for a specified limited duration and, on the eligibility and election dates, had no reasonable expectancy for further employment. [ Id. at 1088].

See also United Telecontrol Electronics, 239 NLRB 135, 100 LRRM 1093 (1978), where the Board emphasized the temporariness of employment in denying four employees' eligibility to vote in a unit of maintenance employees. Similarly, interns are hired for a "specified limited duration" and have no expectation of further employment.

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National Labor Relations Act, 29 USCA 151 et seq., should serve as a guide. See Lullo v. Int'l Ass'n of Firefighters, 55 N.J. 409, 424 (1970).

Jonathan Roth, Hearing Officer

DATED: May 15, 1987
Trenton, New Jersey





















7/ I do not decide the appropriateness of including the interns within a unit of security officers or any other unit. Even if another organization filed a representation petition seeking to add the interns to an existing unit, these interns would need to demonstrate a reasonable expectation of permanent employment. See City of Bordentown, D.R. No. 81-27, 7 NJPER 120 ( & 12049 1981). In light of the insufficient interest of interns in their employment relationship to be represented in a separate unit, I recommend that the petition be dismissed.