National Labor Relations Board Makes Huge Mistake

April 3, 2023 7:22 am

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) members can dictate to and micromanage certain private sector employees, but those same board members can make embarrassing blunders at their own jobs, without consequence.

The president of the United States nominates each of the five National Labor Relations Board members. Members of the U.S. Senate later confirm or reject the president’s nomination. If senators approve that nominee, then he or she receives a signed presidential commission and that person then, and only then, gets sworn into office.

But the NLRB mistakenly administered the oath of office to a nominee before the nominee received the president’s signed commission. This is according to a new report that staff at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published last week.

“Although NLRB’s protocols in place at the time instructed an official to ensure that the commission was signed as soon as possible after Senate confirmation before administering the oath of office, NLRB did not follow those protocols,” the GAO report said.

“Based on a review of that error, NLRB revised its protocols to include several new steps to ensure proper administration of the oath of office. For example, NLRB established a committee for handling presidential appointments consisting of six senior officials to ensure that the commission is signed prior to administering the oath of office.”

Members of the U.S. Senate confirmed the nominee on July 28, 2021. The National Labor Relations Board administered the oath of office to the nominee on August 28 of that year.

“However, on September 22, 2021, [the] NLRB Chairman learned that the confirmed nominee had not previously received his signed presidential commission and, therefore, had not been appointed to the position,” the GAO said.

“On the same day, the confirmed nominee received his signed presidential commission effectuating his appointment to the position, and the Chairman re-administered the oath of office to him.”

The report did not identify the nominee. An Oct. 8, 2021 NLRB press release, however, reported that the board member in question was David Prouty. The press release blamed “an internal miscommunication” for the error.

According to its website, the NLRB is a federal agency that “addresses complaints of unfair labor practices and protects employees’ right to unionize.”

The Virginia-based National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW) has previously accused the NLRB of siding with unions versus individuals who accused unions of wrongdoing.

Last month NRTW staff submitted an amicus brief at the NLRB in a case involving Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organizers’ attempt to impose unionization on workers at Starbucks without a secret ballot vote.

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The NRTW brief defends workers at Starbucks and workplaces nationwide from what they called President Joe “Biden-appointed NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo’s attempt to effectively mandate coercive ‘card check’ organizing campaigns.”

“In card check campaigns, professional union organizers can pressure workers into signing cards that are then used at ‘votes’ for unionization in lieu of an NLRB-supervised secret ballot vote.

The NRTW is a nonprofit that aids employees whose human or civil rights were violated by compulsory unionism abuses.

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