Franchisors and "Joint Employers"

Image result for golden arches of mcdonalds

A fine story by Josh Eidelson at Bloomberg makes it clear what the McDonald's case before the NLRB is about.

Or what it WAS about, because it has now been settled.

The issue is a common one in our time. The franchising business model is ubiquitous, and the franchising company often has a lot of leverage over the franchisees. This, in turn, means that the employees of the franchisees can reasonably suspect, when their boss (the franchisee owner) is breaking the law to their disadvantage, that his de facto boss (the franchisor) is telling him to do so, or is encouraging it.

Also, there is the eternal temptation to reach for the deepest pockets around, and those will generally be franchisor pockets.

The NLRB has gone back and forth in recent years about when if ever a franchisor can be considered a "joint employer" of the workers hired by the franchisee. It is a question of enormous importance in dollars and cents terms, and this settlement might fairly be criticized for delaying a decisive resolution and deferring such legal certainty as it might be possible to attain in this area.

Nothing profound coming, just thinkin' aloud folks.

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