SUMMARY OF FY 1999 PERFORMANCE
Pursuant to the Government Performance and Results Act, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) developed a Strategic Plan that identifies goals, objectives and performance indicators for Fiscal Years (FY)1998-2002. The Strategic Plan enables FLRA to carry out responsibilities identified in the FLRA Mission Statement: "to exercise leadership under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute to promote stable, constructive labor-management relations that contribute to a more effective Government."
The FLRA Strategic Plan includes four broad goals. They are: 1) providing high quality services that timely resolve disputes; 2) using alternative methods of dispute resolution and avoidance to reduce the costs of conflict; 3) maintaining internal systems that support programs needs -- notably information technology systems; and 4) developing FLRA staff to ensure an effective organization with the flexibility to meet program needs. Consistent with the FLRA Strategic Plan, FLRA developed its FY 1999 Annual Performance Plan which identifies 28 performance goals to implement the four Strategic Plan goals.
During FY 1999, FLRA fully met, or exceeded, 22 of the 28 performance goals (including one goal which was exceeded by 55%). Of the six goals not "fully" met, FLRA substantially met three -- falling just 1% short of two goals and making significant progress to meet the other goal. FLRA partially met the remaining three goals. Adjustments have been made to achieve these six performance goals in FY 2000.
Significant accomplishments were made by the FLRA in implementing its FY 1999 performance goals. The FLRA reduced the number of overage cases, the overall age of the pending inventory and case processing times. At the same time these reductions occurred, FLRA maintained high standards of quality. In addition, FLRA revised its regulations relating to negotiability appeals and unfair labor practice pre-complaint activity to improve and expedite case processing. Significant aspects of the negotiability regulations include conferences designed to narrow and clarify issues; revision of procedures to enable the Authority to resolve all aspects of a dispute, where appropriate; and clarification of the responsibilities of each party. The purpose of the revised ULP regulations is to facilitate dispute resolution and to simplify, clarify and improve processing of ULP charges. In addition, the revised ULP regulations provide for OGC dispute resolution services at every stage of case processing.
The quality of FLRA services continued to improve through implementing initiatives identified as necessary by respondents to a 1998 customer survey. The FLRA established a model alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program and continued to emphasize ADR methods by providing training, facilitation and intervention services. The FLRA made significant progress in its commitment to maintain sound internal systems and processes including implementation of a Year 2000 (Y2K) remediation plan, upgrade of computer hardware and software, design and conversion of agency databases and expansion of the FLRA web site. Finally, FLRA continued its commitment to maintaining a highly skilled work force through employee development programs and a performance management system.
The following describes the specific performance related to each of the performance goals in the FLRA FY 1999 Annual Performance Plan in the order they appear in the FY 1999 Congressional Budget Submission.