Cite as: 532 U. S. 706 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
the party claiming that the employee is a supervisor. For example, when the General Counsel seeks to attribute the conduct of certain employees to the employer by virtue of their supervisory status, this rule dictates that he bear the burden of proving supervisory status. See, e. g., Masterform Tool Co., 327 N. L. R. B. 1071, 1071-1072 (1999). Or, when a union challenges certain ballots cast in a representation election on the basis that they were cast by supervisors, the union bears the burden. See, e. g., Panaro and Grimes, 321 N. L. R. B. 811, 812 (1996).
The Board argues that the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit erred in not deferring to its resolution of the statutory ambiguity, and we agree. The Board's rule is supported by "the general rule of statutory construction that the burden of proving justification or exemption under a special exception to the prohibitions of a statute generally rests on one who claims its benefits." FTC v. Morton Salt Co., 334 U. S. 37, 44-45 (1948). The Act's definition of "employee," § 2(3), 29 U. S. C. § 152(3), "reiterate[s] the breadth of the ordinary dictionary definition" of that term, so that it includes "any 'person who works for another in return for financial or other compensation.' " NLRB v. Town & Country Elec., Inc., 516 U. S. 85, 90 (1995) (quoting American Heritage Dictionary 604 (3d ed. 1992)). Supervisors would fall within the class of employees, were they not expressly excepted from it. See Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U. S. 883, 891 (1984); cf. Packard Motor Car Co. v. NLRB, 330 U. S. 485 (1947). The burden of proving the applicability of the supervisory exception, under Morton Salt, should thus fall on the party asserting it. In addition, it is easier to prove an employee's authority to exercise 1 of the 12 listed supervisory functions than to disprove an employee's authority to exercise any of those functions, and practicality therefore favors placing the burden on the party asserting supervisory status. We find that the Board's rule for allocating the burden of proof is reasonable and consistent with the Act, and
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