About NLRB

The NLRB is an independent federal agency enforcing the National Labor Relations Act, which guarantees the right of most private sector employees to organize, to engage in group efforts to improve their wages and working conditions, to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative, to engage in collective bargaining, and to refrain from any of these activities. It acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions. 

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency vested with the power to safeguard employees' rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The chart below details steps in the unfair labor practice process. The second chart outlines the steps in the representation election process.

Assignments will be made as Field Attorneys in six of the NLRB Regional Offices listed below. One placement per Regional office. Attorneys in the Honors Program may indicate an interest in assignment to the following Regional offices:

The Honors Program attorneys will be assigned to the offices of individual Board Members, and they will also be assigned on a rotational basis to the Office of Representation Appeals, the Office of the Solicitor, and/or the Office of the Executive Secretary. The rotational assignments are subject exclusively to management discretion based on work needs. Although the attorney is expected to be employed as a permanent staff attorney at the conclusion of the two-year program, all attorneys are subject to a two-year probationary period.

The Office of the General Counsel is charged with the responsibility of enforcing the nation's fundamental labor law, the National Labor Relations Act. Unlike almost all other Federal agencies, the Board enjoys independent litigating authority. Every day, attorneys with the Office of the General Counsel represent the Board and the General Counsel in proceedings before federal bankruptcy and district courts and federal courts of appeals.

National Labor Relations Act

In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), making clear that it is the policy of the United States to encourage collective bargaining by protecting workers’ full freedom of association. The NLRA protects workplace democracy by providing employees at private-sector workplaces the fundamental right to seek better working conditions and designation of representation without fear of retaliation.

If your work-related issue isn’t on this checklist, it could be because it is handled by another federal or state agency.

For information about common workplace concerns and the federal labor laws that apply, please visit https://www.worker.gov.

For questions about wages, tips, work hours, overtime, breaks, vacation pay, or the Family Medical Leave Act, contact the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243.