Despite Hurdles, Board and General Counsel Report Favorable Case Processing Data for FY 2026, but Emphasize there is More Work to be Done

Newly released case processing data confirms that the National Labor Relations Board successfully reduced a substantial inherited backlog during FY 2026 while continuing to see a significant demand for its services. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 (October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026), 21,587 Charges and Petitions were filed with the Agency, a slight decrease of 4.27% over FY 2025. Notably, however, the Agency discontinued casehandling procedures during the government shutdown that lasted from October 1 to November 12, 2025. Prior to the 43-day shutdown, Agency data was projected to show an increase in filings during FY 2026.  

General Counsel Report

On January 7, 2026, when General Counsel Crystal Carey was sworn in, there were 18,221 cases pending in the Agency’s Field Offices awaiting investigation and determination, including nearly 10,000 cases that had been pending for more than six months. The backlog of cases in the field began to grow in 2021 amid increased demand for NLRB services and longstanding staffing and funding constraints. By the time General Counsel Carey took office in January 2026, the backlog of cases was at an all-time high. As of today, 10,684 of the investigations pending on January 7, 2026, have been moved to determination.

Building off December 2025 guidance requiring parties filing unfair labor practice charges to submit a timeline, supporting documents, and witness information within two weeks, the General Counsel initiated additional casehandling efficiencies. First, rather than issuing a mandatory submission to advice memoranda, the General Counsel stressed that all cases should be investigated under extant Board law. Rather than pushing regions to identify cases to overturn precedent, the General Counsel prioritized case processing above all else. Next, the Agency issued guidance emphasizing more consistent and timely case processing, followed by instructions to Regional offices to narrow investigative requests to relevant evidence and encourage more flexible settlements. Those changes included directing investigators to obtain the charging party’s evidence before seeking a response from the charged party, avoiding unnecessary requests for entire employee handbooks, and reserving certain enhanced settlement remedies for exceptional cases. Finally, to address the regional backlog, in May, the Agency redistributed work across its Regional offices by transferring approximately 3,500 unfair labor practice charges among Regional offices as part of an initiative targeting those investigations pending on January 7, 2026. As of today, 1,810 of those transferred cases have been moved to determination.  

These measures address different sources of delay: 1. Having more information in the hands of investigators when they begin work on a case leads to a more informed and efficient investigation; 2. Not requiring every case on a particular issue be sent to Advice saves regional investigators’ time, and allows them to focus on case processing; 3. Transferring cases across regions with more bandwidth balances workloads amongst Regional offices; and 4. Revised investigative and settlement procedures seek to reduce the time required to resolve individual charges.  

“Our dedicated career staff have worked tirelessly to protect workers’ rights and carry out the Agency’s mission under challenging circumstances. Their professionalism and commitment are the foundation of our efforts to tackle the backlog and get answers to America’s workers,” General Counsel Carey said. “By redistributing cases to offices with available capacity, collecting key information earlier, and streamlining investigations and settlements, we are taking practical steps to help our staff move cases forward more efficiently. Let me be clear though, there is no overnight solution to this massive backlog, but these improvements reflect our commitment to timely, fair, and consistent casehandling for America’s workers, employers, and unions who rely on us.”

Board Report

The adjudicative side of the Agency also overcame significant challenges during FY 2026. The Board and its career staff remained committed to issuing high-quality and timely decisions, but the Board’s ability to execute on that commitment was stymied by an extended government shutdown and the loss, at the end of January 2025, of its statutorily-required quorum of at least three Board Members. The Board was unable to conduct Agency business, with only brief respite, throughout the remainder of FY 2025 and the first three months of FY 2026. The Board regained a quorum in early January 2026 and proceeded to make FY 2026 a banner year for Board case processing.  

As a result of the hard work of the newly constituted Board and its career staff, in just nine months the Board issued 390 decisions in contested cases for FY 2026. This was the highest number of decisions issued in contested cases since 2015, when the Board issued 394 decisions after a full year of work. Similarly noteworthy, the Board successfully addressed both pending and new cases. When the Board regained a quorum on January 7, 2026, there were 591 cases pending before the Board. From January 7, 2026, to September 30, 2026 (the end of FY 2026), 208 new cases were assigned to the Board, bringing the total number of cases pending before the Board during this period to 799. The newly constituted Board decided 507 of these cases by the end of September, which left only 292 cases pending before the Board at the end of the fiscal year.  

“I commend the Board’s career staff for their outstanding work during the last nine months of FY 2026,” said NLRB Chairman James Murphy. “Despite the Board’s loss of its quorum, career staff never lost sight of their commitment to uphold the National Labor Relations Act. They diligently processed pending cases, positioning the Board to act swiftly upon restoration of quorum. We now celebrate the fruits of their labor—issuance of the most decisions in over a decade.”    

Both the Board and General Counsel continue to strive to reduce the backlog of cases and promptly process new matters as the Agency continues to deal with funding and staffing shortages. The NLRB's budget was flat-funded at $274 million from FY 2014 through FY 2022. With a one-time $25 million increase in funding for FY 2023, Congress raised the NLRB’s budget to $299.2 million. Congress then flat-funded the Agency at $299.2 million for FY 2024 and FY 2025 and reduced the budget to $294 million for FY 2026. Due to this long-term flat-funding, and the compounding impact of inflation on salaries and rent over the years, in the past two decades, staffing in field offices has shrunk by 50%. The Agency acutely feels the strain of budgetary pressures and reduction, coupled with critical staffing vacancies, and seeks additional resources to restore the NLRB’s capacity to timely enforce the Act that serves America’s workers, employers, and unions.