In rocky year, NLRB cuts case backlog, wait times

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The case backlog at the National Labor Relations Board, as well as the average time it takes for a case to be resolved, has been cut back, according to statistics released by the agency last week.

Many of the 341 decisions issued during Fiscal Year 2012, which ran from Oct. 1, 2011, through Sept. 30 involved some of the oldest cases on the board’s case list. The resolution of those matters cut the average length of time from filing to resolution for pending cases in half – from 219 days to 108 days, according to the board.

The data covers a frenzied year for the board as it issued a host of controversial rulings and faced several court challenges to its rulemaking and authority. A federal court case challenging the president’s authority to install two of the board’s four current members is pending, as is a court challenge that has blocked implementation of a rule streamlining the union election process. Another court ruling struck down a portion of an NLRB rule requiring employers to post a notice informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, preventing the board from finding that a failure to post such a notice is automatically an unfair labor practice.

In addition, one board member, Terence Flynn, resigned in July amid accusations that he leaked confidential information about pending NLRB cases to former board members. In September, the board’s general counsel released a report finding that Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon violated ethics rules by participating in a case in which he had a financial stake.

The board has also issued a flurry of enforcement actions and guidance memos on the use of social media, and whether certain online postings are protected concerted activity under the act.