D.R. NO. 88-2

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

BEFORE THE DIRECTOR OF REPRESENTATION

In the Matter of

NORTHERN HIGHLANDS REGIONAL

BOARD OF EDUCATION,

Public Employer,

-and-	Docket No. CU-87-57

NORTHERN HIGHLANDS REGIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL SECRETARIES ASSOCIATION,

Petitioner.

Appearances:

For the Public Employer

Cassetta & Taylor, Consultants

(Fred Baron, Consultant)

For the Petitioner

New Jersey Education Association

(John Biondi, UniServ Rep.)

DECISION

On March 26, 1987, a Petition for Clarification of Unit was filed with the Public Employment Relations Commission ("Commission") by Northern Highlands Regional High School Association of Secretaries ("Association"). The Association seeks to include the position of administrative assistant/secretary to the Board Secretary ("administrative assistant") in a collective negotiations unit of secretaries employed by the Northern Highlands Regional Board of Education ("Board"). The Association asserts that the position shares a community of interest with the secretaries' unit.

The Board alleges the position is confidential within the meaning of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act ("Act"), N.J.S.A. 34:13A-3(g), and that the Association is not the majority representative of the unit of secretaries.

We have conducted an administrative investigation in this matter (N.J.A.C. 19:11-2.6). The administrative investigation reveals the following:

1. The Northern Highlands Regional Board of Education is a public employer within the meaning of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, is the employer of the employee in the disputed position and is subject to the Act's provisions.

2. The Northern Highlands Regional High School Association of Secretaries is an employee representative within the meaning of the Act and is subject to its provisions.

3. A Commission staff agent conducted an investigatory conference at which both parties stated their positions and made the following factual assertions:

On June 20, 1986, representatives of the secretarial/clerical personnel informed the Board that they had formed and joined the Northern Highlands Secretaries Association for the purpose of becoming the majority representative for the secretarial and clerical staff. On June 23, 1986, the Board adopted secretarial salaries for 1986-87, maintaining the salaries from the previous year pending negotiations with the Association for the

upcoming school year. On June 27, 1986, the Board requested information from the Association, including the composition of the unit which the Association claimed to represent. On July 8, 1986, the Association sent the Board a list of the positions which it alleged were included in the unit. That list included the position of bookkeeper.

On July 16, 1986, Arlene Perkins, the administrative assistant/secretary to the Board Secretary wrote to the Association requesting that her position not be included in the unit. On August 11, 1986, John Kowalsky, the Board Secretary, sent a letter to the Association requesting that the position of administrative assistant be excluded from the unit because:

A responsible function for this position is that as Administrative Assistant, he or she projects salary information pertinent to negotiations. For example, the Board may request that salaries be projected for a particular unit at 6%, 7%, 8% etc."

On August 28, 1986, the Board sent the Association a list of the secretarial employees and their present salaries. Perkins was on that list. On September 8, 1986, the Board unilaterally adopted 1986-87 salaries for three secretarial positions which it believed were excluded from the unit, including the position held by Perkins. On September 11, 1986, the Association sent a memo to the Superintendent asserting that Perkins' position was included in he unit. On September 15, 1986, Kowalsky replied to the Association's memo and contended that the position was excluded from the Association's unit.

Although there was no formal recognition resolution passed by the Board herein, at the investigatory conference, both parties agreed that the Board had voluntarily recognized the Association. Additionally, the Board indicated that it had adopted a salary resolution for secretarial personnel pending negotiations with the Association and hired Fred Baron, a labor relations consultant, to represent it in negotiations with the Association.1/

The issue presented by this petition concerns whether or not the secretarial unit includes the administrative assistant position. There are three administrative assistant positions. All three administrative assistants work in the Board's business office. Only the administrative assistant who has bookkeeping duties is at issue. The parties agree that the other two administrative assistants are not eligible for inclusion in the negotiations unit.

Perkins has held the administrative assistant position since it was created in January 1978. It appears that the disputed administrative assistant's duties were previously performed by the bookkeeper. That position (bookkeeper) was eliminated in the late 1970's.

1/	It appears that the parties agreed that the Association represents the secretarial personnel. Accordingly, I decline to address issues raised by the Board concerning the "informality" of recognition provided by the Board.

There is no job description for the administrative assistant. However, the parties agree that she is required to process income tax forms and to enter changes in payroll status and employee information regarding pension funds and other benefits into the computer. The payroll itself is prepared outside the district. She puts paychecks into the correct envelopes and oversees their distribution. She files cancelled paychecks and files quarterly tax returns with the state and federal governments. She places the district budget into the computer and logs purchasing orders against line item accounts.

Perkins is one of two administrative assistants working under Kowalsky. At the conference and in an affidavit, Kowalsky stated Perkins does all the accounting for the district and is called upon to create hypothetical salary schedules and gather data on comparative benefits and working conditions in other districts during negotiations with all units. She is the only secretary with knowledge of the computer used to prepare and administer the budget and the payroll. Kowalsky stated that he routinely requires Perkins to cost out proposals on the computer.

N.J.S.A. 34:13A-3(g) defines confidential employees as:

...employees whose functional responsibilities or knowledge in connection with the issues involved in the collective negotiations process would make their membership in any appropriate negotiating unit incompatible with their official duties.

The key to confidential status is an employee's access to and knowledge of the issues involved in the labor relations process

including negotiations, contract administration, grievance handling and the preparation for these functions on management's behalf. State of New Jersey (Division of State Police), D.R. No. 84-9, 9 NJPER 613 (¶14262 1983); County of Essex, D.R. No. 84-7, 9 NJPER 574 (¶14239 1983). The mere collection of raw data in preparation for negotiations by itself is insufficient to establish confidential status. Montague Tp. Bd. of Ed., P.E.R.C. No. 87-36, 12 NJPER 773 (¶17294 1986); River Dell, P.E.R.C. No. 84-95, 10 NJPER 148 (¶15073 1984), aff'g D.R. No. 83-21, 9 NJPER 180 (¶14084 1983); Rahway Bd. of Ed., D.R. No. 80-12, 5 NJPER 50 (¶1026 1979). An individual may collect comparative labor relations data or generate raw data on a computer without knowledge of proposals or strategies that would tend to compromise the Board's position in negotiations. However, if the request for data enables an employee to determine the specific position the employer will take at negotiations or in processing a grievance, based upon the timing of the request to collect or generate data. If an individual has knowledge of the employer's strategies or if the individual is able to infer them from other contemporaneous events, such as offers currently on the table, then that individual may be a confidential employee.

Perkins is routinely required to prepare cost projections of salary and benefit proposals on the computer and to obtain data for negotiations for Kowalsky. However, there is no evidence that she is able to glean, in advance, information regarding the Board's proposals or its thought processes concerning negotiations. For

example, there is no allegation that she is asked to generate data on possible compromise positions on issues where both the Board and the Association have offers on the table. Nor is there evidence that she has additional duties that expose her to information that would compromise the Board's negotiations position. Based upon the material now before us, it appears that Perkins, as administrative assistant, is not a confidential employee and the Association's petition to include the position in the new unit of secretaries is appropriate.

Accordingly, we clarify the negotiations unit of secretaries employed by the Northern Highlands Regional Board of Education to include the position of administrative assistant/secretary to the Board Secretary, effective immediately. Clearview Bd. of Ed., D.R. No. 78-2, 3 NJPER 248 (1977).

BY ORDER OF THE DIRECTOR

OF REPRESENTATION

Edmund G. Gerber, Director

DATED: July 14, 1987

Trenton, New Jersey