{"id":14,"date":"2015-06-10T13:40:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T13:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbclegal.com\/blog\/?p=14"},"modified":"2016-03-22T20:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T20:14:02","slug":"possible-joint-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/possible-joint-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"Franchisors and Franchisees Possible Joint Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-199\" src=\"https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/mcdonalds-732929_1280-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"joint employers, employer liability, joint employment\" width=\"310\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/mcdonalds-732929_1280-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/mcdonalds-732929_1280-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/mcdonalds-732929_1280-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/mcdonalds-732929_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/>On December 19, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (including a regional office in Chicago) \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mynlrb.nlrb.gov\/link\/document.aspx\/09031d4581a24ee5\">filed 13 complaints<\/a> against McDonald\u2019s for alleged violations of federal labor laws by its franchisees. The complaints allege that the franchisees and the company punished workers for participating in fast food protests by reducing the workers\u2019 hours or even firing them. Against 50 years of precedent, the NLRB ruled\u00a0that McDonald\u2019s is a joint employer of the employees of its franchisees, making McDonald\u2019s potentially liable for employment\u00a0laws broken by more than\u00a03,000 U.S.\u00a0franchises. The NLRB\u2019s general counsel explained\u00a0that McDonald\u2019s \u201cwields such extensive influence over the business operations of its franchisees that individual franchise operators have little autonomy in setting or controlling workplace conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nlrb.gov\/news-outreach\/news-story\/nlrb-office-general-counsel-issues-consolidated-complaints-against\">Read the NLRB\u2019s Press Release Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The NLRB\u2019s action is particularly noteworthy because McDonalds\u2019 franchisees operate under contracts that explicitly relieve\u00a0McDonald\u2019s from any\u00a0responsibility for hiring, firing and supervising restaurant employees. Currently, federal anti-discrimination statutes reject the joint employer status of franchisors like McDonald\u2019s, but in wake of this recent NLRB action, other federal agencies may\u00a0follow suit.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear whether the courts will accept the NLRB\u2019s ruling, and assuming a settlement is not reached, the 13 cases will be brought before administrative law judges beginning March 30 in Chicago, Manhattan, and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Impact on Franchise Law<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Considering the NLRB\u2019s controversial decision, franchising may be a less attractive business model for the franchisors, as they would become liable for personnel (and potentially other) decisions made by their franchisees,\u00a0who are traditionally seen as independent business owners.<\/p>\n<p>And franchisees may lose\u00a0more independence over\u00a0how they operate their business, while labor unions would be easier to form and could consequently subject more franchisees to the Affordable Care Act\u2019s employer mandate. To read more about the employer mandate,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/obamacarefacts.com\/obamacare-employer-mandate\/\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To learn more about this decision and its implications, contact us at (312) 216-2720.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On December 19, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (including a regional office in Chicago) \u00a0filed 13 complaints against McDonald\u2019s for alleged violations of federal labor laws by its franchisees. The complaints allege that the franchisees and the company punished &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/marcusboxerman.com\/blog\/possible-joint-employers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","category-franchisee","category-franchisor-distributor-services","tag-joint-employers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Franchisors and Franchisees Possible Joint Employers -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Against 50 years of precedent, the NLRB ruled that McDonald\u2019s is a joint employer of the employees of its 3,000 franchisees.\" 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