After what was by all accounts a controversial and historic year for the NLRB, the agency’s 2013 Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) highlights what the NLRB views as its accomplishments and successes. A copy of the 92-page report is available here.
The report notes the following as its “Statistical Highlights” for 2013:
- The Board issued 342 decisions in contested cases in FY 2013, 277 ULP cases and 65 representation cases
- 94.3 percent of all initial elections were conducted within 56 days of filing of the petition
- Initial elections in union representation cases were conducted in a median of 38 days from the filing of the petition
- Acting on the results of professional staff investigations, which produced a reasonable cause to believe unfair labor practices had been committed, Regional Offices of the NLRB issued 1,272 complaints, setting the cases for hearing
- A 92.8 percent settlement rate was achieved in the Regional Offices in ULP cases that were deemed to be meritorious by the NLRB
- The Regional Offices won 85.7 percent of Board and ALJ ULP and Compliance decisions in whole or part in FY 2013
- A total of $16,245,665 was recovered on behalf of employees as backpay or reimbursement of fees, dues, and fines with 1,352 employees offered reinstatement
Among other notables comments in the report, the NLRB reports that even after its highly publicized roll-out of the new NLRB app for smartphones, the app has been downloaded only 5,000 times. (One wonders how many of those downloads went to the phones of management-side labor lawyers. I’m just asking.) There is no reference in the report to the number of NLRB decision that were overruled in 2013 by the federal courts of appeals.