On March 27, 2026, President Trump designated Board Member James R. Murphy as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. Chairman Murphy was nominated by President Trump to be a Member of the NLRB and was sworn in on January 7, 2026, for a term expiring on December 16, 2027. Murphy previously spent over 47 years serving the NLRB before retiring, first as a student law clerk in 1974 and later serving as counsel to numerous Board members. He most recently served as Chief Counsel to former chairman Marvin Kaplan.
Murphy’s designation as Chairman was followed by Senate confirmation of Scott Mayer, which restored the three-member quorum that is required for the Board to issue decisions. As a result, the Board now has a 2-1 Republican Majority, with Murphy, Mayer and Democrat David Prouty.
What Does This Mean for Employers?
Because of the lack of quorum that existed since early 2025, the Board could not decide cases, which led to a significant backlog of over 500 cases. The Board can now start making some headway on the backlog and we can therefore expect decisions on appeals from administrative law judges and unfair labor practice charges. For employers with pending cases, they can expect decisions, which will lead to certainty, at least as to the specific issues at hand. Additionally, if an issue does reach the NLRB, employers can expect to litigate knowing there will be a substantive outcome, as opposed to delay.
While we can expect decisions from the NLRB, it is unlikely that we will see a rollback of Biden-era NLRB precedent, such as the Cemex (when a union claims majority support, an employer must either promptly seek an election or recognize the union and if the employer commits unfair labor practices, the NLRB may order bargaining without a vote), Stericycle (an employer work rule is presumed unlawful if an employee could reasonably interpret it as chilling protected concerted activity unless the employer can show it is narrowly tailored to a legitimate business need), or McLaren Macomb (limiting employer use of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions in severance agreements) decisions. Two seats on the five-member Board remain vacant and there must be a majority of votes to overturn existing NLRB decisions. With only three seated members of the Board, any change would require the agreement of all three members. Significantly, there is no indication that the Trump administration is rushing to fill all five seats. Indeed, no nominees for the remaining two seats have been publicly announced.
The NLRB General Counsel also recently issued new case handling guidance, in Memorandum GC 26-03, the purpose of which is to promote fair, efficient and consistent enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act. The Memorandum includes instructions to Regional Offices intended to: prioritize settlements, concentrate investigative resources where they have the greatest impact and ensure clarity in evidence requests.
These developments signal that the NLRB’s immediate priorities are: (1) to clear the backlog of cases and (2) streamline its processes to create more efficiency with an emphasis on settlement and limiting enhanced remedies.
Contact
To discuss further, contact KJK Labor & Employment attorney Beth Spain (BRS@kjk.com).