In 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) adopted a controversial new standard for determining whether an employer is a “joint employer” of another employer’s employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Board’s new standard upset more than forty years of established law on the doctrine of joint employment, with the clear purpose of expanding joint employment liability to cover many more employers.
Around the same time, the Obama Administration’s Labor Department (DOL) announced that it was increasing scrutiny of joint employment relationships under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and issued guidance suggesting that it too would take a broader view of joint employment liability.
Earlier this year, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives – the Save Local Business Act (H.R. 3441) – to reestablish a traditional joint employer definition for purposes of both the NLRA and FLSA. On November 7, 2017, the House approved H.R. 3441 by a vote of 242 to 181, with eight Democrats joining all Republicans in voting aye.
The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate, where its prospects for passage are iffy at best. In the meantime, there are clear signs that the Trump Administration plans to take administrative steps to restore the traditional standard, regardless of whether H.R. 3441 advances.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.