Department of Labor Relations - Appendix A

Appendix A in the audit of the Department of Labor Relations

Overview

The Department of Labor Relations (DLR) uses its DLR Case Processing Goals document to track its progress for different case types, case stages, and events.

As previously stated in the “Case Stage Timeline Goals” section of this report, DLR measures its actual case/event timelines against its case stage timeline goals by taking the following two steps:

• First, DLR calculates the actual number of days it took to complete a specific case/event type.
• Second, DLR calculates the percentages of case stage timeline goals that it met for each case and event type.

An example of these two steps is as follows: For an unfair labor practice case, the first case stage is labeled as “Filing of the Charge to Investigation—Level 1.” The starting event for this case stage is labeled as “Case Filed” and the concluding event is labeled as “Investigation Scheduled.” The DLR Case Processing Goals document states that the number of days between these two events must not exceed 120 days. DLR’s percentage goal for this case stage is for at least 75% of all of these case stages to meet the 120-day case stage timeline goal.

Also, each case type is either listed as “Track,” which indicates that DLR does not measure the goals associated with this case type on a regular basis because it stated that, historically, it usually meets those goals, or “Target,” which indicates that DLR does measure the goals associated with this case type on a regular basis.

The following tables, which include information that comes directly from the DLR Case Processing Goals document, further illustrate DLR’s case stage timelines goals.

Unfair Labor Practice Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Charge to Investigation—Level 1	Track Track	75% within 120 Days Number of Postponements Average Duration of Postponement
2.    Filing of the Charge to Investigation—Level 2	Track Track	75% within 150 Days  Number of Postponements Average Duration of Postponement
3.    Investigation Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Probable Cause Determination—Level 1	Target	80% within 40 Days
4.    Investigation Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Probable Cause Determination—Level 2	Target	80% within 50 Days
5.    Issuance of Complaint to 1st Day of Hearing—Level 1	Track Track	70% within 210 Days Number of Postponements Average Duration of Postponement
6.    Issuance of Complaint to 1st Day of Hearing—Level 2	Track Track	70% within 400 Days Number of Postponements Average Duration of Postponement
7.    Hearing Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Hearing Officer Decision—Level 1	Target	80% within 240 Days
8.    Hearing Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Hearing Officer Decision—Level 2	Target	80% within 240 Days
9a.  Probable Cause Appeal—Full Dismissal—Ripe for Decision to Issuance of [Commonwealth Employment Relations Board] Decision	Target	75% within 160 Days
9b.  Probable Cause Appeal—Partial Dismissal	Target	80% Prior to Prehearing Conference
10.  Hearing Officer Appeal Ripe for [Commonwealth Employment Relations Board] Decision to Issuance of [Commonwealth Employment Relations Board] Decision	Target	75% within 240 Days

Representation Cases: Representation Petition and Election Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Petition to the Election Being Held	Target	80% within 120 Days
2.    Filing of the Petition to Consent Election Agreement	Target	70% within 60 Days
3.    Consent Election Agreement to Election	Target	80% within 60 Days
4.    Election Held  [for Issuance of Certified Results]	Target	80% within 10 Days
5.    Briefs Filed to Hearing Officer—Draft Decision	Target	60% within 60 Days
6.    Hearing Officer Draft Decision to [Commonwealth Employment Relations Board] Decision Issued	Target	60% within 60 Days

Representation Cases: Written Majority Authorization Petition Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Petition to Investigator Assigned	Target	80% within 8 Days
2.    Investigator Assigned to Certification	Target	80% within 30 Days

Representation Cases: Unit Clarification Petition Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Case Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Decision	Target	60% within 120 Days

Labor Dispute Mediation Cases: Non–Police/Firefighter Interest Mediation Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Petition to the First Mediation Session	Target	60% within 60 Days
2.    Filing of the Petition to Tentative Agreement	*	*

*      These cells are intentionally blank, as they came to us blank in the original DLR Case Processing Goals document.

Labor Dispute Mediation Cases: Police/Firefighter Interest Mediation Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Petition to the First Mediation Session	Target	60% within 60 Days
2.    Filing of the Petition to Tentative Agreement	Track	Days to Closing

Labor Dispute Mediation Cases: Grievance Mediation Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Filing of the Petition to the First Mediation Session	Target	60% within 60 Days
2.    First Mediation Session to Closing	Track	Days to Closing

Grievance Arbitration Cases

Case Stage	Track/Target	Case Stage Timeline Goal
1.    Arbitration Ripe for Decision to Issuance of Decision	Target	75% within 150 Days [COVID-19] Target—275 Days

Date published:	October 30, 2024