General Counsel Announces Case Process Statistics for Three Divisions

The National Labor Relations Board Office of General Counsel announced case processing data for Fiscal Year 2019 for three offices: Office of Appeals, Division of Advice, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Branch.

The Office of Appeals, which reviews appeals by employers, unions, and individuals who believe their unfair labor practice allegations have been wrongly dismissed by a Regional Office, reduced its backlog of cases from 294 in FY18 to 98 in FY19. Overall, the Office of Appeals closed 400 more cases in FY19 than in FY18. The office also processed 245 more appeals than they received during the fiscal year.

The Division of Advice, which provides guidance to the Agency’s Regional Offices regarding difficult and novel issues arising in the processing of unfair labor practice charges, reduced the average age of closed cases for FY19 to 38.6 days, a 9.8% reduction from FY18. The average age of closed cases for Regional Advice Branch for FY19 was 51.1 days, a 12.4% reduction in case processing time from FY18. The average age of closed cases for the Injunction Litigation Branch was 9.1 days, a 34.5% reduction from FY18.

The Agency's FOIA Branch processes all FOIA requests made to the Agency. In FY19, the Branch reported that it responded within 20 working days to 67.5% of FOIA requests and 90% of FOIA appeals. FOIA backlogs were reduced from 87 requests at the end of FY18 to 37 requests in FY19, a 57.5% decrease.

General Counsel Peter Robb said, “Collectively, we met our goal by significantly reducing case processing times in FY19. I want to thank the hardworking professionals in these divisions for their dedication to reducing case processing times and making the Agency run more efficiently. Streamlining the processes by which cases are handled will better allow the Agency to serve the parties and the public.”

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees and employers from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year.

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