US PRESIDENT Joe Biden fired an anti-union labour board lawyer on Wednesday just hours after taking office, Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke reports.

US National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel Peter Robb was sacked by Mr Biden, who has pledged to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” soon after he entered the White House.

Mr Biden told Mr Robb he should step down by 5pm or he would be fired.

By 8.45pm the general counsel position on the NLRB’s online organisational chart was listed as vacant.

Mr Robb, a former management lawyer who was involved in Ronald Reagan’s infamous 1981 battle against the US air traffic controllers union, brought a pro-business and anti-union approach to the board, which is tasked with overseeing workers’ rights to organise. 

Unions welcomed the move with the Service Employees International Union, saying Mr Robb was a “uniquely destructive figure” whose policies had harmed workers.

AFL-CIO union body president Richard Trumka said: “His actions sought to stymie the tens of millions of workers who said they would vote to join a union and violated the the stated purpose of the NLRB to encourage collective bargaining. His removal is the first step in giving workers a fair shot again.”