and retention and their services were used by the employer "for the avowed purposes of building

audiences and selling advertising, common objective in the broadcasting industry." Id.

         Here, WBAI relies on unpaid staff for all of its programming from 8 P.M. to 5 or 6 A.M. 

(T., p. 162 LL. 8-19), requires that unpaid staff attend certain mandatory meetings (T., p. 200

L. 12 - p. 202 L. 10; Ex. J-1), supervises (T., p. 186 L. 21 - p. 187 L. 14 ), hires (T., p. 249

L. 5 -- p. 252 L. 9), disciplines (T., p. 187 L. 16 -- p. 190 L. 10 ), and promotes unpaid staff 

(T., p.225 L. 7 - p. 227 L. 3).  Certainly, unpaid staff should not be denied the status of 

"employee" simply because their compensation takes a different form, especially where as here

their work enhances the prestige of the station, (T., p. 282, LL. 20-23) and are clearly an

integral part of WBAI's round the clock broadcasting and programming format.

         The Employer (T., p. 14 L. 19 - p. 16 L. 8 and pp. 10.4-106) argued that the Board had 

firmly established that one who does not work for wages cannot be an employee.(11) Citing both 

Leland Stanford Junior Universiiy, 214 NLRB 621 (1974) and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 223 NLRB 

251 (1976), the Employer argued that any "fact-finding" beyond the issue of monetary wages was

an improper issue for the Board to consider.  This argument is simply wrong and his reliance on

these cases is misplaced.

         The question the court faced in Leland Stanford was whether the petitioning students

were primarily employees or primarily students and thereby not covered by the Act.  Referencing

the research assistants in Adelphi University. 195 NLRB 639 (1970), the Board ruled that the

Leland Stanford university graduate student - research assistants were not "employees" in large

part

______________________________________________________________

         11      Counsel also ignores the monetary compensation that unpaid staff do receive
in the form of child care and reimbursement, and the substantial amount of money that
unpaid staff are paid for special projects.

                                            19

Previous Page ---------- Next Page