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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.

On April 30, 2014, the Board issued an order granting review of the Acting Regional Director’s Decision and Direction of Election of the current joint-employer standard as articulated in the Board’s decisions in TLI, Inc., 271 NLRB 798 (1984), enfd. mem. 772 F.2d 894 (3d Cir. 1985), and Laerco Transportation, 269 NLRB 324 (1984). “To establish joint employer status there must be a showing that the employer meaningfully affects matters relating to the employment relationship such as hiring, firing, discipline, supervision and direction.” In June 2014, the NAM’s Manufacturers’ Center for Legal Action (MCLA) submitted an amicus brief outlining key concerns of manufacturers in changing the definition of joint employer.

On August 27, 2015 in a 3-2 decision, the Board loosened the standard for determining joint employment under the National Labor Relations Act. For the past 30 years, the relevant joint employer inquiry was whether or not an entity exerts a direct and immediate degree of control over another business's employees and their essential terms and conditions of employment. Under the new standard, the Board evaluates whether an entity exercises indirect control over the means or manner of the employees' work and terms of employment, or whether the entity has the potential to exercise such control. This requires a very fact-specific case-by-case inquiry.

The NLRB’s actions challenge the way manufacturers are able to work in the United States, and the NAM continues to advocate and fight for manufacturers on this issue.

Browning-Ferris has appealed the Board's decision to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The NAM has joined that fight, which can be found here.