Court of Appeals Reverses ERB on SEIU Home Health Care Case

Today the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a decision overturning the Oregon Employment Relations Board's finding that the Oregon Home Care Comission (HCC) had committed an unfair labor practice. The ERB had found that the HCC, by and through the Department of Human Services, told employees pay would be affected because of "unionization." Under Oregon law, it is an unfair labor practice for an employer, or an employer's designated representative, to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in or because of the exercise of their union rights. This statement was found to be interference because of union activity. The Court, on the other hand, found that even though DHS "administers a program . . . through which it authorizes payments to home care workers" employed by the Commission, DHS was not a designated representative. Because there was no dispute the DHS was not the employer, the Court found that DHS could not have committed an unfair labor practice under ORS 243.672(1)(a). The crux of the decision is that a third party, even one who is acting in concert with an employer, is not liable for unfair labor practices unless that third party is a "designated representative."