Cite as: 532 U. S. 706 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
mining supervisory status. Employees are statutory supervisors if (1) they hold the authority to engage in any 1 of the 12 listed supervisory functions, (2) their "exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment," and (3) their authority is held "in the interest of the employer." NLRB v. Health Care & Retirement Corp. of America, 511 U. S. 571, 573-574 (1994). The only basis asserted by the Board, before the Court of Appeals and here, for rejecting respondent's proof of supervisory status with respect to directing patient care was the Board's interpretation of the second part of the test—to wit, that employees do not use "independent judgment" when they exercise "ordinary professional or technical judgment in directing less-skilled employees to deliver services in accordance with employer-specified standards." Brief for Petitioner 11. The Court of Appeals rejected that interpretation, and so do we.
Two aspects of the Board's interpretation are reasonable, and hence controlling on this Court, see NLRB v. Town & Country Elec., Inc., supra, at 89-90; Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 842-844 (1984). First, it is certainly true that the statutory term "independent judgment" is ambiguous with respect to the degree of discretion required for supervisory status. See NLRB v. Health Care & Retirement Corp. of America, supra, at 579. Many nominally supervisory functions may be performed without the "exercis[e of] such a degree of . . . judgment or discretion . . . as would warrant a finding" of supervisory status under the Act. Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., 85 N. L. R. B. 1170, 1173 (1949). It falls clearly within the Board's discretion to determine, within reason, what scope of discretion qualifies. Second, as reflected in the Board's phrase "in accordance with employer-specified standards," it is also undoubtedly true that the degree of judgment that might ordinarily be required to conduct a particular task may be reduced below the statutory threshold
713
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