National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Peter B. Robb has appointed career NLRB attorney Mark Arbesfeld to be director of the General Counsel’s Office of Appeals. In his new position, Arbesfeld will lead the office that reviews appeals by employers, unions, and individuals who believe their unfair labor practice allegations have been wrongly dismissed by a regional office.
While initial case merit decisions are made by regional directors in one of the NLRB’s 26 regional offices, those dissatisfied with a regional director’s decision may seek review of a dismissal with the Office of Appeals.
Each year, the Office of Appeals receives and handles approximately 1,500 cases.
A 34-year veteran of the NLRB, Arbesfeld began working in the Office of Appeals in 1983. He transferred to the NLRB’s Regional Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Region 4), in 1987, where he served as a field attorney. Arbesfeld returned to the Office of Appeals in 1999 and was promoted to a supervisory position in 2001. He was named deputy director of the Office of Appeals in 2013.
Arbesfeld received a B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1980 and a J.D. degree from The National Law Center, George Washington University, in 1983.
The NLRB is an independent federal agency tasked with enforcing the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which guarantees the right of most private sector employees to organize, to engage in group efforts to improve their wages and working conditions, to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative, to engage in collective bargaining, and to refrain from any of these activities. It conducts secret-ballot elections regarding representation of workers and acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions.
Peter Robb himself was only recently confirmed to the position of NLRB general counsel by the Senate and then sworn in. He almost immediately issued a memo asking regional directors to refer all cases involving decisions made during the President Obama era to his office for review.