Dive Brief:
- Business and trade groups are using their collective muscle to get the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) joint employer ruling reversed, The Hill reports. More than 50 organizations are pushing Congress to roll back the measure.
- The groups, including the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association, wrote to members of the House Education and Workforce Committee expressing their opposition to the ruling and requesting that it be reversed.
- The ruling holds joint employers equally responsible for the actions of other entities, including host companies, staffing agencies, contractors and subcontractors, in managing their workers. Employers with “indirect” and “potential” control over workers’ conditions of employment are considered joint employers, says the NLRB.
Dive Insight:
Overturning the joint employer ruling will take time. President Donald Trump can appoint up to two members to the NLRB in order to fill vacancies left open after a change in administrations. The party in charge gets three board seats, but all nominations require Senate approval.
Browning-Ferris Industries, a waste management firm, is looking to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to overturn the NLRB ruling. A hearing has been scheduled for March.
Meanwhile, Jack in the Box, the fast-food restaurant chain, recently scored a win for franchisers when the U.S. District Court for Oregon overturned the joint-employer ruling in its case. Competitors in the space have not been so lucky in dealing with similar suits.
