State Public Sector Decisions
Public Sector Decisions Addressing the Employee Status of Residents
All public sector jurisdictions, but one,* that considered the question concluded that residents are employees for the purpose of collective bargaining and rejected the type of reasoning used by the National Labor Relations Board in Cedars-Sinai.
Committee of Interns & Residents v. Public Health Trust of Metro Dade County, Fla. PERC Case No. RC-95-060 (Sept. 4, 1996) (holding house staff to be employees under “common law” definition, and in light of statutory policy of encouraging collective bargaining “for the resolution of labor disputes” and ensuring “an uninterrupted flow of services to the public”).
Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Public Emp. Relations Bd., 41 Cal. 3d 601, 224 Cal. Rpts. 631, 715 P.2d 590 (1986).
House Officers Ass’n v. University of Neb. Medical Ctr., 198 Neb. 697, 255 N.W.2d 258, 261-262 (1977) (rejecting student/employee dichotomy and noting that “the great weight of authority in state courts has come to a decision contrary to the Cedars-Sinai case”).
Regents of Univ. of Mich. v. Michigan Emp. Relations Comm’n, 204 N.W.2d 218 (Mich., 1973) (rejecting “mutually exclusive” student/employee dichotomy and noting that professionals “continue their learning throughout their careers”).
City of Cambridge and Cambridge Hosp. House Officers Ass’n, 2 MLC 1450 (1976), aff’d, City of Cambridge v. Massachusetts Labor Relations Comm’n, No. 22701 (Mass. Superior Ct., July 25, 1978) (unpublished) (determining that house staff are “compensated for services rendered under the close supervision of another” and are employees, “whatever their ‘primary’ role;” and noting that house staff are "precisely the type of supervised persons covered by” the NLRA).
In re Commission on Mental Health Serv. Dep’t of Human Serv., D.C. Gov’t and Committee of Interns & Residents, 38 DCR 1628, Op. No. 269, PERB Case No. 90-R-04 (1991).
University Hosp., Univ. of Cincinnati College of Medicine v. State Emp. Relations Bd., 63 Ohio St. 3d 339, 587 N.E. 835 (1992) (rejecting argument that house staff were students and not employees).
Veterans Admin. Medical Ctr., East Orange, N.J., 20 FLRA 900 (1985) (rejecting argument that house staff are not employees because “the purpose of their employment may be educational”); Veterans Admin. Medical Ctr., Brooklyn, N.Y., 8 FLRA 289 (1982); Veterans Admin. Medical Ctr., Long Beach, Cal., 7 FLRA 434 (1981) (declining to adopt the reasoning of Cedars-Sinai and St. Clare’s Hosp. and holding that house staff, like apprentices, are employees even though a “primary purpose” of their employment is educational).
Worcester City Hosp. and Worcester City Hosp. Physicians House Staff Ass’n, 3 MLC 1290 (1976).
Prince George’s County General Hosp. & Medical Ctr., No. 77-PG-R-29 (Prince George’s County PERB, March 30, 1978).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Only one jurisdiction concluded that residents are students and not employees for the purpose of collective bargaining: Philadelphia Ass’n of Interns & Residents v. Albert Einstein Medical Ctr., 92 LRRM 3410, 369 A.2d 711 (Pa. 1976) (Pennsylvania Supreme Court, reversing Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, found house staff to be students rather than “public employees.”)