NLRB Issues Strategic Plan for FY 2019 to FY 2022

The National Labor Relations Board is issuing its Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2019 through 2022, which is required under the Government Performance and Results Act of 2010.  The Strategic Plan contains four mission-related goals to support the vision of NLRB Chairman John Ring and General Counsel Peter Robb.

These four mission-related goals include: (1) achieving a collective 20% increase (5% over each of four years) in timeliness in case processing  of unfair labor practice charges, (2) achieving resolution of a greater number of representation cases within 100 days of the filing of an election petition, (3) achieving organizational excellence and productivity, and (4) managing agency resources efficiently and in a manner that instills public trust. 

To achieve these stated goals, the Strategic Plan calls for an annual, Agency-wide 5% reduction in case processing time for unfair labor practice charges. This reduction includes not only case handling in the regional offices, but also the time between issuance of an Administrative Law Judge’s decision and a Board Order, and issuance of a Board Order and closure of a case.  Over the years, the amount of time it takes for cases to be processed and for resolutions to be reached has increased and backlogs of cases have developed.  This initiative has been developed to reverse these trends.

In support of the Strategic Plan, the General Counsel has issued Memorandum GC 19-02, Reducing Case Processing Time, discussing how these goals affect the NLRB’s Divisions of Advice, Legal Counsel, Enforcement Litigation, Operations-Management and the Regional offices.

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employers and employees 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. The Office of the General Counsel is 
independent from the Board and is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practice cases, for the conducting of secret ballot elections to determine whether employees desire union representation, for the overall supervision of field offices around the country, and for the general oversight of the Agency’s administrative, financial, personnel and human capital operations.