National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency that was established by the Congress in 1935. The agency was initially established to administer the national labor relations act, the act, also known as the Wagner act was created to make the employers to stop interfering with the activities of labor unions. In 1935 NLRB comprised of 3 board members who were given the task of ensuring the rights of most of the employees were upheld at the work place.
In 1947, the Wagner Act was replaced by the Taft-Hatley Act which aimed at correcting the abuses that came about with the application of the Wagner act. The 1947 Act was then amended further to become the Landrum-Griffin Act which mainly focused on corruption allegations in the unions (Bernan, 2008).
Today, the board is made up of five board members as well as the general counsel who is appointed by the president and approved by the senate. The board members who are hired for a five year term serve the function of reviewing cases brought forth from the administrative proceedings. The sole function of the General Counsel is to investigate and prosecute unfair labor practices. He/she also oversees the supervision of the NLRB offices that are located across the United States of America (Bernan, 2008).
Other than serving the purpose of regulating union activities in the state, the agency also acts as a watch dog, looking out for the employees in the cases of unfair treatment and labor practices by the employers as well as the labor unions. The board also has a quasi-judicial system from where they take up labor disputes with the aim of resolving them. The general counsel who is also part of the board members of the agency has the authority to investigate cases and disputes presented before the board and prosecute the complaints.
Though NLRB listens and prosecutes complaints it can only executes it orders through the court of appeals of the state. Processing of charges normally takes a certain format where complaints against the employer or the labor union are first heard by the NLRB regional office to determine if there is justified violation of the law, after a violation has been noted, the case is forward to the Administrative judge who hears the case and makes a decision.
It is this decision that is then reviewed by the board members and makes reviews on the decision. The decision made by the board members has to be analyzed by the court of appeal before it accepts the decision to be used as the final ruling. The Board has no authority however to initiate a complaint, it should therefore be initiated by the employees, employers or the labor unions (Bernan, 2008).
The involvement of NLRB in labor issues is limited to complaints, disputes and issues in the private sector only. The private sector is defined as any enterprise, institution and organization that are solely owned by an individual or institution with the sole papoose of making profits. The government/state is not involved in any way in the running of the private institution/organization. This therefore means that the board has no authority to involve itself in disputes emanating from government institutions and its employees (Bernan, 2008). Airline and agricultural employees are also not to be covered under the board.
Though the administering of decisions by the NLRB is limited it is effectively serving the important function of protecting the employees from unjust labor practices through hearing their grievances and pushing forth for a permanent solution.
Reference
Bernan, (2008). Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board. Government printing office.
Is this your assignment or some part of it?
We can do it for you! Click to Order!
