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Updates on the “Joint Employer” Standard

10/10/17

By: Tim Holdsworth
More than two years have passed since the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) handed down its new and controversial joint employer standard in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, 362 NLRB No. 186 (August 27, 2015). As you may recall, that decision greatly expanded the standard under which an entity could be found as a joint employer under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). In departing from its own well-established standards, the NLRB announced that they will no longer require a joint employer to possess and exercise authority to control employees’ terms and conditions of employment, but instead will find sufficient control if the entity merely reserves this authority. They also announced they will no longer require the employer’s control to be exercised directly and immediately. Instead, the NLRB declared that control exercised indirectly, such as through an intermediary, can establish the requisite control.
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) adopted a similar standard for who it considered a “joint employer” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act shortly thereafter.
Neither of these controversial steps has fared well. The Browning-Ferris decision has been under attack in courts, while the DOL rescinded its guidance earlier this year under new Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
Legislative efforts also have been made to give further guidance to businesses that have struggled with the uncertain and convoluted joint employer scheme. Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee approved a bill that would amend both the NLRA and FLSA to require that a company exert “direct, actual and immediate” control over workers to be considered an employer.
We will continue to monitor this legislation and provide any updates. For now, however, employers need to know that the Browning-Ferris standard is still in effect.
If you have any questions about federal, state, or local wage and hour laws, please contact Tim Holdsworth at tholdsworth@fmglaw.com or any of the attorneys in FMG’s Labor & Employment Law Section.