588
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
effective recommendations with respect to such action." Senate Report, at 4, Legislative History 410.
The purpose of § 2(11)'s definition of "supervisor," then, was to limit the term's scope to "the front line of management," the "foremen" who owed management "undivided loyalty," id., at 5, Legislative History 411, as distinguished from workers with "minor supervisory duties."
At the very time that Congress excluded supervisors from the Act's protection, it added a definition of "professional employees." See 29 U. S. C. § 152(12).5 The inclusion of that definition, together with an amendment to § 9(b) of the Act limiting the placement of professionals and nonprofessionals in the same bargaining unit, see n. 1, supra, confirm that Congress did not intend its exclusion of supervisors largely to eliminate coverage of professional employees.
Nevertheless, because most professionals supervise to some extent, the Act's inclusion of professionals is in tension with its exclusion of supervisors. The Act defines a supervisor as "any individual" with authority to use "independent judgment" "to . . . assign . . . other employees, or responsibly
5 "The term 'professional employee' means— "(a) any employee engaged in work (i) predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical, or physical work; (ii) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance; (iii) of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time; (iv) requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual, or physical processes; or
"(b) any employee, who (i) has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in clause (iv) of paragraph (a), and (ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself to become a professional employee as defined in paragraph (a)."
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