Cite as: 511 U. S. 571 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
those rights to supervisory employees, however, so the statutory definition of supervisor becomes essential in determining which employees are covered by the Act. In this case, we decide the narrow question whether the National Labor Relations Board's (Board's) test for determining if a nurse is a supervisor is consistent with the statutory definition.
I
Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Act of July 5, 1935, ch. 372, 49 Stat. 449. In the early years of its operation, the Act did not exempt supervisory employees from its coverage; as a result, supervisory employees could organize as part of bargaining units and negotiate with the employer. Employers complained that this produced an imbalance between labor and management, but in 1947 this Court refused to carve out a supervisory employee exception from the Act's broad coverage. The Court stated that "it is for Congress, not for us, to create exceptions or qualifications at odds with [the Act's] plain terms." Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U. S. 485, 490 (1947). Later that year, Congress did just that, amending the statute so that the term " 'employee' . . . shall not include . . . any individual employed as a supervisor." 61 Stat. 137-138, codified at 29 U. S. C. § 152(3). Congress defined a supervisor as:
"[A]ny individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment." 61 Stat. 138, codified at 29 U. S. C. § 152(11).
As the Board has stated, the statute requires the resolution of three questions; and each must be answered in
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