Labor Law -- 2018



Browning-Ferris Indus. v. NLRB   (D.C. Circuit)

What constitutes a "joint-employer"

The NAM filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit supporting Browning-Ferris in its appeal from an adverse decision by the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) in a dispute regarding the legal standard that should apply when determining whether two or more companies are “joint employers” under federal labor law. The Board abandoned its longstanding legal standard for joint employer determinations, replacing it with a new standard that evaluated whether an entity exercised indirect control over the means or manner of the employees’ work and terms of employment, or whether the entity had the potential to exercise such control. If upheld, the new standard would unreasonably expand the companies deemed to be an individual’s employer and impose employment obligations and liabilities on those employers. The NAM’s brief argued that the longstanding “direct control” standard should remain the standard for determining joint employment and that the Board’s loosened standard subjected companies to unmerited liability, without providing the same benefits as the old rule. The D.C. Circuit upheld the Board’s consideration of “reserved right to control” and “indirect control” in the joint-employer inquiry but remanded the case to the NLRB for it to adequately define what constitutes control.


Related Documents:
NAM amicus brief  (June 14, 2016)