NLRB Region Grants SEIU Local 509's Request for Mail Ballot Election

The traditional method of determining whether employees seek union representation is a secret manual ballot, requiring employees to go to a place (usually work) at a specific date and time. Attorney Patrick Bryant persuaded the Regional Director that the scattered work schedules and locations of part-time human services workers at Nupath, Inc. merited the use of a mail ballot election.

SEIU Local 509 filed a petition to represent nearly 250 Nupath employees involved in direct patient care (excluding nurses and other positions). The Employer sought a manual ballot at just three locations on one day for three hours each. Local 509's research demonstrated that this proposal was inadequate to capture the democratic feelings of employees.

Employees worked schedules that fluctuated week-to-week at one or more of Nupath's 20 or so different work sites, thus requiring extensive travel in order to vote. The average employee would have to travel 15 to 20 miles to vote.

Also most employees are not working at a particular time. Forty percent of employees are relief workers - who change schedules and locations on a daily basis. Only 45 to 60 percent of employees are working on any particular week day. Of the employees scheduled to work a particular day, many schedules did not correspond to the Employer's proposed voting bloc. As such, a manual ballot would require voters to come to work on a scheduled day off or come to work several hours early. A manual ballot election would effectively disenfranchise most employees eligible to vote. Local 509's research indicated that nearly all employees had some obligation outside of work. An overwhelming majority had second jobs, nearly half had THIRD jobs, and many also had childcare, family and/or education responsibilities.

As such, Local 509 argued that the only effective way to provide a bona fide opportunity to vote is through a mail ballot. The Regional Director agreed. His decision is attached.