SOUTH SHORE EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIVE --

SOUTH SHORE EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIVE and SOUTH SHORE COLLABORATIVE FEDERATION, LOCAL 3961, AFT, AFL-CIO, Case No. MCR-2897, October 10, 1980, 7 MLC 1356

Dolan and Altman, Commissioners

On February 6, 1980, Hearing Officer Stuart A. Kaufman issued his decision in the above-captioned case. He found the facts in this case to be similar to the facts in Shore Collaborative, 6 MLC 1856 (1980), accordingly, he issued a decision conforming to the opinion in Shore Collaborative. He directed an election in two units, one consisting of professional employees and one of non-professional employees, to determine whether the employees in each unit desire to be represented by the South Shore Collaborative Federation, Local 3961, AFT, AFL-CIO, or by no employee organization.

The South Shore Educational Collaborative (Collaborative) filed a timely notice of appeal, pursuant to the Commission Rules and Regulations, 402 CMR 13.13. Both parties filed timely supplementary statements. The Massachusetts Teachers Association was allowed to intervene for the purpose of filing a brief.

The facts of this case do not differ significantly from those existing in Shore Collaborative, also decided today. Here, the towns of Braintree, Cohasset, Hingham, Hull, Norwell, Quincy,
Scituate and Weymouth have joined together pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Ch.40, s.4E (Collaboratives Law) to form the South Shore Collaborative. The only distinguishing characteristic is that the members of the South Shore Educational Collaborative Board (Board), unlike the Shore Collaborative Board, are not members of the school committees of the participating committees. Instead, the current membership of the South Shore Board is composed of a school superintendent, assistant superintendents' and directors of pupil personnel from each school system. This difference does not affect our determination that the reasoning expressed in Shore Collaborative must apply to the present case. Thus, the participating municipalities through their respective school committees, are the public employers of the Collaborative workers.

Specifically, under Collaboratives Law, the school committees of the participating towns have the choice to appoint either school committee members or other representatives to form the Board. M.G.L. c.40, s.4E. We agree with the hearing officer that it would exalt form over substance to decide that employee coverage under the law is dependent on whom the school committee actually appoints to the collaborative board. In our view, the power to control the collaborative and the collaborative workers accompanies the power to create and make appointments to the board. Accordingly, and for the reasons set forth in the Shore Collaborative decision, we hereby affirm the decision of the hearing officer. In so doing, we specifically conclude, as was implied by the hearing officer's decision, that the school committees of the participating towns have designated the board of directors of the Collaborative to represent them and act in their interest in dealing with Collaborative employees.

The following units are appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining:

Unit A (Professional)

All administrators, teachers, therapists (speech, occupational, physical), nurses, social workers and educational instructors, excluding all managerial and confidential employees and all other employees.

Unit B (Non-Professional)

All teacher aides, secretaries and custodians, excluding all managerial and confidential employees and other employees.

By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the Commission by Chapter 150E of the General Laws, IT IS HEREBY DIRECTED, as part of the investigation authorized by the Commission, that an election by secret ballot shall be conducted under the direction and supervision of representatives of the Commission among the aforesaid employees at such time and place and under such conditions as shall be contained in the Notice of Election issued by the Commission and served on all parties and posted on the premises of the employer together with copies of the specimen ballot.

In order to assure that all eligible voters shall have the opportunity to be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all parties to this election shall have access to a list of voters and their addresses which may be used to communicate with them.

Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY FURTHER DIRECTED that three (3) copies of an election eligibility list containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters must be filed by the employer with the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Leverett Saltonstall Building, 100 Cambridge Street, Room 1604, Boston, Massachusetts 02202, no later than fourteen (14) days from receipt of this decision. The eligible voters shall consist of all those persons within the above-described unit who were on the payroll of the employer for the week ending October 3, 1980 and who have not since quit or been discharged for cause.

The Executive Secretary shall make the list available to all the parties to the election. Since failure to make timely submission of this list may result in substantial prejudice to the rights of the employees and the parties, no extension of time for the filing thereof will be granted except under extraordinary circumstances. Failure to comply with this direction may be grounds for setting aside the election should proper and timely objections be filed.

AFFIRMED.