(a) The Board shall determine issues of unit determination, certification, and representation in accordance with this chapter and the provisions of section 941 of this title. The Board shall decide the appropriate unit for collective bargaining in each case and the employees to be included in that unit to assure the employees the fullest freedom in exercising the rights guaranteed by this chapter.

(b) In determining whether a unit is appropriate, the extent to which the employees have organized is not controlling. The Board shall not recognize a unit if, after investigation and hearing, the Board determines that the employees do not constitute a unit appropriate for collective bargaining or if recognition of that unit will result in over-fragmentation of collective bargaining units.

(c) If an interested person files with the Board a charge alleging that employees eligible to vote in an election under this chapter were coerced or restrained in the exercise of that right, the Board shall investigate and conduct hearings into the validity of the charge. If the Board concludes that employees were coerced or restrained, the Board may set aside the election and order another election pursuant to this chapter. (Added 1997, No. 92 (Adj. Sess.), § 9.)