Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) handling of regionally decided cases appealed to NLRB headquarters, focusing on: (1) the length of time taken to decide appealed cases since 1984; (2) factors contributing to excessive delays; and (3) the need for additional administrative or legislative actions.
GAO found that: (1) the 33 NLRB regional offices resolved the vast majority of cases within 1 year; (2) NLRB headquarters reviewed about 5 percent of regionally decided cases; (3) between 1984 and 1989, NLRB headquarters decided about 67 percent of the appealed cases within 1 year, but 10 percent of appealed cases took from 3 to more than 7 years to decide and 17 percent took more than 2 years; (4) between 1984 and 1989, median processing times for appealed cases were among the highest in NLRB history; (5) median times for decisions on appealed unfair labor practice cases ranged from 273 to 395 days; (6) median times for decisions on appealed representation cases ranged from 190 to 256 days; (7) although NLRB headquarters timeliness improved in 1989, reduced delays were probably due to NLRB working on the oldest cases and a reduction in the number of cases; and (8) case delays resulted from a lack of standards and procedures to prevent excessive delays, lack of timely decisions on major cases that delayed the consideration of related cases, and NLRB headquarters turnover and vacancies.
