Dive Brief:

• In its strategic plan for fiscal years 2019 to 2022, released Monday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) laid out four strategic goals: 1) promptly solving labor disputes; 2) promptly and fairly resolving all questions concerning representation of employees; 3) achieving organizational excellence and productivity; and 4) managing agency resources in a manner that instills public trust.
• NLRB also detailed initiatives that will help it achieve those goals, including achieving a 20% increase in timely processing of unfair labor cases (for which, it noted, it has achieved a 5% year-over-year increase in each of the past four fiscal years) and resolving more representation cases within 100 days of an election petition filing.
• The document also predicts that NLRB's overall case intake will decrease by 500 to 1,000 cases during the upcoming fiscal year.

Dive Insight:

The NLRB's four-point strategic plan focuses on the board processing and resolving cases faster and more efficiently, but employers are still waiting for its input on key workplace issues — most notably joint employment. In September, the board published a proposed joint-employer rule, following an announcement from Chairman John Ring that it would not revisit its decision to abandon a previous ruling on the issue.

NLRB's proposal is subject to a public comment period, the deadline of which has now been extended twice. Stakeholders may now comment through Jan. 14, and the deadline for replies to other comments is now Jan. 22.

Additionally, the NLRB requested briefs on workers' use of their employers' email systems during nonworking hours, which the Obama administration contended was protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Briefs were due Sept. 5. The board ruled in 2007 that employers could restrict workers' use of company email systems, but reversed that ruling in 2014.