LIUNA NO. 517, )
and ) CASE NO. 76-1015
) PERC NO. 8H-RC-762-0065
Public Employer. )
Pursuant to notice, the Division of Administrative Hearings, by its duly designated Hearing Officer, K. N. Ayers, held a public hearing in the above styled cause on August 30, 1976 at Winter Garden, Florida.
For Petitioner: L. Joe O'Donnell, Business Manager
LIUNA No. 517
For Public Charles R. Fawsett, Esquire Employer: 100 East Robinson Street
At the commencement of the hearing Exhibit 1, the original Petition; Exhibit 2, Affidavit of Compliance for Registration of Employee Organization; and Exhibit 3, Affidavit of Compliance for Required Showing of Interest, were admitted into evidence. The admission into evidence of Exhibit 3 was objected to by the Public Employer on the grounds that the exhibit was not signed by the PERC General Counsel and no authority for someone to sign his name was shown.
The parties stipulated that the Petitioner is an Employee Organization and that the City of Winter Garden is a Public Employer as defined in Chapter
447 F. S. They further stipulated that the Petitioner requested recognition and that recognition was declined by the City of Winter Garden.
The Petitioner's position with respect to the appropriate bargaining unit is the same as that shown in the petition, namely, the unit would include all blue collar employees in the Public Works Department, Water Department, Recreation Department, and Sewage Department. This would include the Streets Division, Trash Division, Sanitation Division, Building Maintenance Division, Vehicle Maintenance Shop, Parks Department, Recreation Department, Water, Sewage and Cemetery. To be excluded would be secretarial, clerical, managerial and supervisory personnel. Public Employer's position is that CETA employees would be excluded from the bargaining unit as not having a sufficient community of interest with other employees. The City would also exclude all employees in
supervisory status from the bargaining unit and as supervisory status would include those as defined under the old PERC rule, or the NLRA. The City would also exclude the personnel in the Recreation Department on the grounds that they have no community of interest with the other employees.
One witness testified and two additional exhibits were offered into evidence. The City offered into evidence Exhibit 4 which was a list of the names of the people employed by the City of Winter Garden who have signed authorization cards with Laborers' Local no. 517. This list of names was forwarded to the City by PERC when a copy of the petition was forwarded to the City. Objection to the admission of Exhibit 4 into evidence on grounds of relevancy was sustained by the Hearing Officer. Exhibit 5, consisting of nine pages of various parts of the City of Winter Garden's organization chart, was admitted into evidence without objection.
During the course of the testimony the parties stipulated that the Superintendent of the Public Works Department, the Director of Recreation, the Superintendent of the Sewage Department, and the Superintendent of the Water Department would be excluded from the appropriate bargaining unit. Testimony was presented that all of the above department heads provided input to the budget by submitting budgets for their respective departments. Testimony was also presented that these individuals had considerable supervisory authority and made effective recommendations with respect to disciplinary actions against all personnel in their department.
The Public Works Department is the largest department of the City employees and includes a Parks Section, a Sanitation Section, a Maintenance Shop Section, a Building Maintenance Section, a Street Section, and a Cemetery Section. The foreman in the Streets Department is the Assistant Superintendent for the Public Works Department and acts as superintendent in the absence of the superintendent. Superintendents report directly to the City Manager, and the various foremen in the departments report to the Superintendent. The foreman in the Streets Department, assistant Superintendent in the Public Works Department, has duties affecting other than the Streets Department. These are supervisory duties over the other departments under the Public Works Department.
The foreman in the Maintenance Shop has one other employee and one CETA employee. The foreman is the master mechanic and spends most of his time as a master mechanic and supervises the work of the other two employees of the department.
The Building Maintenance Department consists of one man who does carpentry work. His duties are scheduled by either the Superintendent of the Public Works Department or the foreman in the Streets Department.
The Sanitation Department removes both garbage and trash. Two crews operate garbage packers with each crew having a driver-supervisor and two laborers. The driver-supervisor reports to the Superintendent. He is responsible for the on-the-job discipline of his crew with his basic authority limited to taking emergency action to relieve a man from duty if he is intoxicated or for some other reason should be relieved. The trash crew is very similar to the crews operating the garbage packers; the only difference being that they use a stake truck to pick up trash.
The Parks Department has two equipment operators with no supervisory authority, and they, report directly to the Superintendent of the Public Works Department.
The Cemetery Department consists of a man and his wife who live in quarters provided by the City at the cemetery. There is one CETA employee who assists them in the maintenance of the cemetery. The two sextons, husband and wife, exercise supervisory authority over one CETA employee.
The Water Department has six employees. The Superintendent in charge reports directly to the City Manager. The foreman in the Water Department exercises supervisory authority under the Superintendent. He directs the operations of the water plant operators and assigns work orders to them to be completed. He can make recommendations for disciplinary action, but these recommendations must go through the Superintendent whose recommendation is the effective recommendation on which the determination to award disciplinary action is based.
The Sewage Department is operated similarly to the Water Department with seven employees including the Superintendent. The sewage plant operator is a supervisor in the department and assigns maintenance men to various jobs. He too may make recommendations for disciplinary authority against those people under him, but the final recommendation for disciplinary action rests with the Superintendent.
In the Recreation Department there are only two non-CETA employees who are full-time employees. One is the Director of the department and one is a recreation maintenance man. The position of maintenance man is presently unfilled, but is expected to be filled and is budgeted for the next fiscal year.
With respect to the CETA employees there is a total of nine employed by the City. These employees are paid with federal funds and the City uses only categories CETA II and CETA VI. Under CETA II the City has a contract with the county who receives the funds and reimburses the City for those CETA II employees that are paid directly by the City. The CETA VI employees are those for whom the City reports to the county the number of hours worked and the county pays those employees direct. The county has advised the City to phase out the CETA program as no funds are allocated for the program beyond January, 1977.
In accordance with s. 447.307(3)(a), F. S., no recommendations are submitted.
DONE and ENTERED this 17th day of September, 1976, in Tallahassee, Florida.
N. AYERS, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304
(904) 488-9675
COPIES FURNISHED:
Charles R. Fawsett, Esquire
100 East Robinson Street Orlando, Florida
Joe O'Donnell LIUNA no. 517
