The Trump administration is looking to use early retirement incentives to cut staffing levels at the federal government's top labor arbiter.
The National Labor Relations Board has put out a call for early retirements to reduce its workforce. The agency said the voluntary retirement and separation programs are needed to restore balance between its caseloads and employees, as well as address "flat funding" as Congress and the White House have rejected bids for budget hikes.
"The NLRB has an imbalance in staffing in both headquarters and the NLRB’s regional offices," the agency said in an Aug. 7 announcement. Incentivizing workers to retire or quit, the announcement says, "will enable the Agency to reallocate its limited resources and to, among other things, provide employees with the tools they need, including training and improvements in technology."
The agency has seen its caseload fall in the past several years. In 2017, NLRB handled 1,854 union election petitions, down from more than 2,000 in 2016 and a 25 percent drop from the 2,418 it handled in 2018, according to NLRB data. Unfair labor complaints, which workers or unions file against employers or labor organizations, also fell to 19,280, down from 21,326 in 2016 and 22,495 in 2008.
An agency spokesman declined to comment about the staff reduction levels it hopes to achieve through early retirements and whether layoffs could follow if those goals are not met. The spokesman referred the Washington Free Beacon instead to the Aug. 7 announcement.
Officials at the Wisconsin-based National Labor Relations Board Union did not return calls for comment. The union collected more than $200,000 from its 661 members in 2017, according to federal labor filings. It has seen steep membership declines in recent years and is half the size it was at its peak of 1,230 in 2002.
General Counsel Peter Robb, a Trump appointee, has attempted to spearhead a reorganizing campaign within the agency to bring it more in line with its budget. The agency spent $273 million in 2017, but the Trump administration and Congress proposed budgets in the $250 million range. The move has drawn resistance from longtime agency officials with a number of regional directors saying that "disproportional cuts to the field offices will exponentially negatively impact the Agency's ability to enforce [federal law]" in a January letter.
Under the terms of the of the early retirement program, employees will allow workers who are above the age of 50 and have worked for at least 20 years to begin receiving immediate annuities, according to the announcement. Any worker with at least 25 years of service, regardless of age, will also be eligible for those benefits. The NLRB, which oversees union elections and rules on workplace disputes, will also provide "financial incentives" to workers in select roles who quit the agency. The voluntary separation and retirement programs will be administered on a first-come, first-serve basis.