Posts tagged Joint Employer rule
Biden’s Labor Department moves to raise taxes on the American workforce
November 1, 2022 // The Labor Department’s proposed rule would force Americans who don’t want a boss to have a boss. Under current law, independent contractors perform a task or execute a project and present the result to an individual or business for payment. Unlike traditional employees, independent contractors have the freedom to set their own schedules, determine their workload, and can put food on the table without needing a boss. Labor’s new proposed rule would force independent contractors to reclassify as W-2 employees if the worker is “economically dependent” on the entity that is paying him or her.
A fearful October for entrepreneurs
October 29, 2022 // The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is coming after the almost 800,000 franchise owners who employ 8.5 million people. The board’s proposed “Joint Employer” rule, would have catastrophic effects on the franchise industry and restrict the opportunities of small business owners who are franchisees. The NLRB rule would force franchisors — distant corporate headquarters — to come between franchisees and their employees. It would do so by making both the headquarters and the small business employers of workers at the franchisees’ store. Franchisors would become jointly liable for employment issues involving workers or contractors who are employed or “directly controlled” (as the current standard notes) by a small business.
NLRB’S RADICAL JOINT EMPLOYER STANDARD WILL DESTROY SMALL BUSINESS AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
October 11, 2022 // The NLRB is pursuing a new joint employer rulemaking that has the potential to destroy small businesses, the American Dream, and the economy. Under this expanded standard, nearly every contractual relationship between businesses will trigger joint employer status, making businesses responsible and liable for the employment practices of their franchisees, suppliers, vendors, contractors, and subcontractors. Under this new rule, businesses will be forced to protect themselves against significantly more liability and obligations under the law. The franchise business model, for example, would be gutted, as the larger franchisor will move to end or limit their support to franchisees or exert increased authority over them, essentially turning those small business owners into employees. The new standard would also force larger companies to subsume local small businesses rather than work with individually owned enterprises, stifling entrepreneurship, business innovation, and flexibility. The expanded standard even hampers businesses’ efforts to encourage “corporate responsibility” among their business partners to the detriment of workers, consumers, and their communities.
Employee Rights Act Would Protect Hardworking Latinos & Expand Freedom for All American Workers
May 9, 2022 // The LIBRE Initiative supports the ERA and its efforts at protecting American workers from anti-choice legislation like the PRO Act and ensuring that they have the flexibility to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving economy.
Contesting the PRO Act’s Coercive Vision
April 1, 2022 // The Employee Rights Act presents a firm contrast with the vision outlined in the PRO Act and supported by Big Labor and its allies in Congress and the Biden administration. Where the PRO Act increases union financial coercion of workers to aid its political allies, the ERA reduces it. Where the PRO Act infringes on workers’ informed consent on union formation, the ERA protects it. Where the PRO Act limits worker privacy, the ERA expands it. Where the PRO Act fails to provide financial transparency and scrutiny in union operations, the ERA provides it. And where the PRO Act endorses Big Labor’s every-job-a-factory-job vision, the ERA promotes modern understandings of compensation and flexibility in working arrangements.
What is the Employee Rights Act, and how would it advance worker freedom?
March 26, 2022 // Unlike the PRO Act – which, imbued with a dated and rigid workplace vision that is increasingly displacing American workers – the ERA would empower workers to seize more opportunity and take greater control of their futures.
How should lawmakers promote the flexible work arrangements workers and families need?
March 12, 2022 // “Workers should be free to seek employment opportunities that use their unique skills to contribute to society, and businesses should have the flexibility to offer choices to diverse potential workers and clients.”
A Misguided Republican Gift to Big Labor
February 8, 2022 // At the 35,000-foot level, a works council is a collective forum that petitions the employer on improving working conditions, receives communications of proposed changes to working procedures, and engages in formalized labor-management dispute resolution. Typically, the works councils are not empowered to call strikes or other industrial actions but are granted some power to bargain with the employer on behalf of the workers at their given work sites.