§4116 Prevention of unfair labor practices

Summary

The General Counsel must look into any complaint that a department or a labor union acted unfairly at work and can file a formal complaint. If the General Counsel decides not to file one because the charge does not show an unfair practice, they must give the person who complained a written reason. A complaint must tell the department or union what the charge is, say a hearing will be held before the Board (or a Board member or someone the Board picks), and give the time and place of the hearing. The department or union can answer the complaint and come to the hearing to testify. No complaint can be filed for conduct that happened more than 6 months before the charge unless the complainant was kept from filing during that time because the department or union failed to do a duty owed to them or hid the conduct. The General Counsel can set up informal ways to try to solve the problem first. A hearing must be held at least 5 days after the complaint is served. Others may be allowed to join and testify. The hearing should follow usual procedures when possible but parties are not bound by strict court rules of evidence, and a transcript must be kept. If the decisionmaker finds by a preponderance of the evidence that an unfair practice occurred, they must write their findings and order relief such as stopping the practice, making the parties renegotiate a contract with retroactive effect, ordering an employee reinstated with backpay under section 5596 of title 5, or a mix of these or other steps to carry out the law’s purpose. If the evidence does not show an unfair practice, the complaint must be dismissed in writing.