The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2019 through 2022, which contains four mission-related goals.

Goal #1:  Promptly resolve labor disputes affecting commerce by fairly and efficiently investigating, settling, processing and adjudicating unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act.

Backlogs of cases have developed over the years, and the amount of time it takes for cases to be processed and for resolutions to be reached has increased.  The Strategic Plan targets a collective 20% reduction (5% over each of four years) in case processing time for unfair labor practice charges. 

Concurrently with the Strategic Plan, the General Counsel issued Memorandum GC 19-02, Reducing Case Processing Time.  In the memo, the General Counsel vested the Divisions of Advice, Legal Counsel, Enforcement Litigation, Operations-Management and the Regional offices with wide discretion to develop systems and processes they believe will enable them to meet the NLRB’s 5% per year reduction goal.

Goal #2:  Promptly and fairly resolve all questions concerning representation of employees.

The Strategic Plan aims to increase the percentage of representation cases resolved within 100 days of the filing of an election petition, and to improve case processing procedures to ensure all matters are handled in a fair and consistent manner.

Goal #3:  Achieve organizational excellence and productivity in the public interest.

The third goal of the Strategic Plan sets forth initiatives to recruit, develop, and retain a highly-motivated, productive, and diverse workforce through improvements to areas such as professional development, workplace flexibility, and employee engagement.

Goal #4:  Manage agency resources in a manner that instills public trust.

The fourth goal includes using technology to improve programs and processes, reducing the square footage or closing field offices and Headquarters office space, and improving the NLRB’s Outreach Program.