The following article was written by Holly J. Wagner, a staff writer for the Daily Pilot, and appeared in the Business Section of the March 12, 1990 edition of that paper.

Newport Beach -- Most people have experienced a problem with a boss or an employee at one time or another. When those problems become trouble with a corporation or labor union, they often become Roger Schnapp's problem.

Schnapp, a Newport Beach labor attorney, is usually on the corporation's side of the net. His 20 years of experience and his ties to the Republican Party have earned him a two-year appointment on the federal Department of Labor's Business Research Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.

"The government, even with the best of intentions, often doesn't do the best thing for business," he said. "We put into perspective the impact of what government does on business."

Council members come from the business community across the country.

"Those of us in the business community are aware of things someone in Washington honing computer programs wouldn't be," he said. "It's a businessman's input on the havoc the government is wreaking on the business community, usually unintentionally."

Often, he said, that havoc is the result of agencies that are designed to deal with problems from regional offices with no single, centralized policy or decision-making body, which results in varied applications of a single law.

"What has happened is the people in the Washington office have become experts in statutes and procedures, but in the regional offices they have no way to access that," he said.

Schnapp's position allows him to find solutions to some of those problems. He has learned which officials to call with specific problems, sometimes heading off a potentially lengthy court battle.

"I can deal with staff members on specific issues," he said. "Sometimes there are informal ways to intercede. I can inform a California (labor) director of a Virginia decision on the same issue."

Although the agencies were designed to allow regional labor concerns to be settled with a minimum of interference from officials in Washington who may not understand distant problems, uniqueness has faded in an age of computers and fast transfer of information, he said. Issues have become more homogenized across the country.

Schnapp has litigated such cases. He handled one memorable case in courts in eight states and several National Labor Relations Borad regions at once.

That case dealt with corporate benefits and, as usual, Schnapp was on the corporation's side.

"The issue was whether an employer can say all employees are covered by the same benefits program and whether the provider can change it at will," he said.

The end result is common practice today, with employers offering a choice of plans from one provider to employees.

In another unusual case, Schnapp helped an employer grappling with employees forming a union.

"It was important to management that each department be dealt with as a separate bargaining unit," he said. "We discovered the height of the ceiling could be used in determining appropriate bargaining units."

How? Though business was conducted in one large plant, different departments for different purposes had different ceiling heights. Eventually, that was the basis for setting up bargaining units.

Schnapp's roles as attorney and member of the council are sympathetic.

"By virture of being on the board, I know a lot more about how the Department of Labor operates," he said.

That knowledge allows him to raise issues department investigators may have overlooked, speeding investigations; or it may guide him in what direction to take in pursuing a case.

His career and work for the council don't put him in conflict, he said.

"They're really not inconsistent," he said. "The odds of someone hiring me because I can deal with the system and someone else can't are slim."

Schnapp sees labor laws under the Bush administration being refined rather than lifted.

"George Bush's and Elizabeth Dole's perception is that in the area of deregulation, we have made all the progress we can make (under Reagan). It's better to focus on the quality of the regulation and making it work," he said.

"It's really more corrective medicine than preventive medicine. It's for when the system isn't working properly. If I could eliminate all the systemic problems you can think of, there would still be more that I can't fix that way."

So his role helping to smooth out the system doesn't eliminate his business.

And, he said, "It's nice to have victories of any sort."