On December 7, 2018, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2019-2022. The NLRB Strategic Plan provides data about the agency’s fiscal year 2018 operations and outlines four overarching goals to support its mission and vision. It was co-authored by NLRB Chairman John Ring and General Counsel Peter Robb.

2018 Operations

Over 20,000 new cases were filed with the NLRB in its fiscal year ending September 30, 2018. This includes 18,870 unfair labor practice charges and 2,090 representation petitions.

The NLRB received 51,613 public inquiries in FY 2018.

It ended the fiscal year with a staff of approximately 1,327 employees.

Strategic Goals

The NLRB’s stated mission is

Protecting workplace democracy by promoting and enforcing the rights and obligations of employees, unions and employers under the National Labor Relations Act, in order to promote commerce and strengthen the Nation’s economy.

Toward achieving those goals the new NLRB Strategic Plan identifies four goals:

Goal #1: PROMPTLY AND FAIRLY RESOLVE THROUGH INVESTIGATION, SETTLEMENT OR PROSECUTION, UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES UNDER THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

Nothing groundbreaking here. As the statistics above show, the overwhelming majority of the NLRB’s workload is the handling of unfair labor practice cases. The NLRB Strategic Plan does, however, further enumerate this goal with more specific case-handling targets.

For example, the NLRB seeks to “achieve a 20% increase in timeliness of case processing . . . for the resolution of all meritorious unfair labor practice charges.” To accomplish this, the agency seeks to decrease average time between four different procedural milestones by 5% each over a four-year period.

An appendix to the NLRB Strategic Plan identifies the annual targets for each of the measures over the course of the years in the plan.

Goal #2: PROMPTLY AND FAIRLY INVESTIGATE AND RESOLVE ALL QUESTIONS CONCERNING REPRESENTATION OF EMPLOYEES

The other primary NLRB function is overseeing representation disputes, often including organizing and conducting employee elections.

The agency has set less-specific sub-goals in this area, but emphasizes that it will “continually review staff suggestions for improvement and modify case processing procedures to ensure more timely and efficient resolution of cases.”

Goal #3: ACHIEVE ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

To achieve this “support” goal, the NLRB says it will “Recruit, develop, and retain a highly motivated, productive, talented, and diverse workforce to accomplish our mission.” It will also “Promote a culture of professionalism, mutual respect, and organizational pride.”

Goal #4: MANAGE AGENCY RESOURCES EFFICIENTLY AND IN A MANNER THAT INSTILLS PUBLIC TRUST

This fourth goal recognizes a general trend toward reduction of the NLRB’s budget (especially under the current Republican administration).

The NLRB Strategic Plan identifies three objectives under this goal:

• Use information and technology to monitor, evaluate, and improve programs and processes in order to accomplish the agency’s mission and increase transparency.
• Evaluate and improve the Agency’s Outreach Program.
• Conduct all internal and external Agency business in an ethical and timely manner.

Obstacles to the NLRB Strategic Plan for 2019-2022

The NLRB Strategic Plan recognizes some factors beyond the agency’s control that might impede progress toward the stated goals.

Budget

The agency disclaims that its ability to achieve its goals assumes appropriate funding from the President and Congress. The Trump administration has proposed lower funding of the NLRB than the Obama administration afforded. The NLRB General Counsel has proposed making reductions to the regional office staffs as a cost-saving mechanism. But the NLRB Strategic Plan acknowledges that staffing reductions could impact agency operations.

Case Intake

The NLRB projects overall case intake to decrease by 500-1,000 cases in FY 2019. But the NLRB does not control the number of cases actually filed in a given year. Moreover, individual cases vary in complexity and, hence, the resources demanded to investigate and resolve them.

Settlements

The NLRB plans to “make early settlement of cases more of a priority.” But it notes that even a “one percent drop in the settlement rate will cost the Agency more than $2 million as the process becomes formal and litigation takes over.”

[Related: NLRB Promotes ADR Pilot Program]

The complete 2019-2022 NLRB Strategic Plan is available here.

Avoiding the NLRB in 2019

Most employers don’t want to become part of the NLRB’s statistics. Though more commonly alleged in unionized workplaces. unfair labor practices can occur even when no union is involved. So all private employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act should familiarize themselves with the law’s protections.

If you do have a union representing some of your employees, you might want to review our earlier webinar on Union Basics for Employers: What Every Company Should Know.

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