High Court Expands Wagner Act Coverage

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Nonmanagement employees -- including secretaries -- who have access to confidential material are eligible to join unions and receive the full protection of federal labor laws, according to a recent Supreme Court decision.

The only employees exempt from the ruling are those who have access to material, such as meeting notes, that has a direct bearing on management-labor relations and negotiations.

The decision overturns a lower court ruling which had stated in part that "all secretaries working in a confidential capacity" are excluded from the Wagner Act. Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, the Wagner Act allows workers to join unions and engage in "concerted activity" with other employees without fear of dismissal (see INC., June 1980, page 100).

The Supreme Court case involved Mary Weatherman, a secretary at the Danville, Ind.-based Hendricks County Rural Electric Membership Corp., who was fired after she signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of an employee who had been dismissed. Weatherman was considered a confidential employee and, according to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, was not protected by the Wagner Act.

The Supreme Court reversed that decision 5-4.