NLRB Plans to Issue a Proposed Rule on Joint-Employer Status
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) plans to issue a proposed rule on joint-employer status this summer, said Chairman John F. Ring in a letter to U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The senators had expressed "strong concerns" that the agency would issue a regulation "that would undermine labor rights clarified" in the NLRB's 2015 Browning-Ferris rule. In that rule, a company need only have indirect control of a worker, and not even exercise that control, to be considered a joint employer. Ring said in his letter that the NLRB believes it is appropriate to engage in traditional rulemaking "for the joint-employer subject because it will permit the board to consider and address the issues in a comprehensive manner and to provide the greatest guidance," rather than rely on a case-by-case adjudication strategy. He added, "By establishing the standard for determining joint-employer status through rulemaking, the Board immediately frees its stakeholders from any concern that actions they take today may wind up being evaluated under a new legal standard announced months or years from now."