On our Management Memo blog, my colleagues Adam Abrahms, Martin Stanberry, and I posted “NLRB Issues 13 Complaints Alleging McDonald’s and Franchisees Are Joint-Employers.”
The National Labor Relations Board continues to focus on the changes in the nature of the employer-employee relationship, and the question of what entity or entities are responsible to a company’s employees for compliance with the range of federal, state, and local employment laws, including wage payment and overtime laws.
The Board’s General Counsel has now taken another big step in his effort to broaden the definition of “employer,” issuing a series of 13 complaints alleging that McDonald’s shares responsibility for franchisees’ employees. At the same time, the Board is poised to answer the question of whether the long standing test that the NLRB has relied on for more than 30 years to determine joint employer status should be replaced with a broader definition, and if so what it should be.