Posts tagged Joint Employer
Do we all work for the federal government?
November 6, 2023 // Under the NLRB’s reasoning, the federal government is a joint employer of all workers covered by these laws. It even says that joint employers include those who exercise “reserved control” — i.e., they don’t set standards, but they have the power to do so. That expands the definition of joint employer even more. Congress has the power to draft legislation affecting essentially any part of the economy. As such, it reserves the right to set standards for all workers, making the federal government a joint employer of anyone and everyone. It’s highly unlikely that unions or the NLRB will try to apply the new rule in this way, since it’s clearly beyond the pale. (Imagine Department of Labor officials bargaining with union officials over the future of workers at your mechanic, along with almost every other business you’ve ever patronized.) Yet if it’s wrong to say that Washington, D.C., is a joint employer over the economy’s workers, it’s equally wrong to make that claim about larger companies and the workers at their independent franchisees. It defies logic — and will injure millions of small businesses and their workers.
This New Labor Rule Could Be Trouble for McDonald’s
October 5, 2023 // McDonald’s and other franchise companies have made it clear they believe the stakes are high. The “reality is that our business model is under attack,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said of possible joint-employer regulations in a speech at a franchising industry conference in Las Vegas earlier this year, in remarks he also published on LinkedIn. Changes by the NLRB, he said, would transform franchisees “from independent small-business owners to employees of the parent brands.” Heightened joint-employer liability could hurt the franchise model in two main ways, according to the International Franchise Association. One possibility, along the lines of what Kempczinski described, is that a franchisor would exert more control over the franchisees. That undercuts one of franchisors’ big selling points to potential franchisees—that they’re offering a path to running their own business, with all of the freedoms that provides. It could also add compliance costs, and potentially, legal and liability expenses. Those increased costs are also a frequent worry for franchisees, says restaurant consultant John Gordon, principal at Pacific Management Consulting Group. Franchisees typically pay franchisors a percentage of their sales, and their profit comes after those fees and their operating expenses. Franchisees are “justifiably afraid of the franchisor passing costs onto them that weren’t part of the franchise agreement,” he says, and wary of joint-employer liability for that reason.
Pro-Union Shift Expected With Labor Board Member’s Pending Exit
August 21, 2023 // Abruzzo has asked the board to resurrect the Joy Silk doctrine—which would allow unions to bypass an official NLRB election with a card-check vote instead—and overturn the 1940’s Babcock & Wilcox ruling to make captive audience meetings unlawful. In another pending case, the board also may decide the fate of the 1970 Ex-Cell-O precedent, which prohibits the NLRB from forcing companies or unions to accept provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. Overturning that decision would allow the board to levy financial remedies against companies to compensate workers for what they could’ve earned with good-faith contract negotiations. The NLRB’s August agenda also includes finalizing regulations to expand the factors that can trigger a joint-employer finding. The rule, proposed nearly a year ago, would eliminate the stricter joint employment standard established by the Trump-era board. Other pending cases could boost the potency of worker strikes, expand the scope of labor law protections, and make other changes that bolster worker and union power.
The PRO Act is wrong for Pennsylvania
August 21, 2023 // Fortunately, there’s an alternative to the PRO Act that lawmakers can get behind. The Employee Rights Act–also introduced this year–would empower workers and bolster the small business community. Among provisions, the bill would guarantee that any vote to form a union would be done via secret ballot election, protect the autonomy of self-employed Americans, and preserve the franchise small business model.
Op-ed: Time to protect worker autonomy
July 21, 2023 //
Google lays off contractors who unionized last month
July 17, 2023 // “Last week we received news that 80 of our nearly 120 recently unionized Google Help coworkers would be laid off,” said Julia Nagatsu Granstrom, Senior Writer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union- CWA. “We had exercised our right to organize as members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in order to bring both Google and Accenture, a Google subcontractor, to the bargaining table to negotiate on several key demands, including layoff protections.” Nagatsu Granstrom describes the layoffs as “absolutely unacceptable,” given the timing of an active union campaign “with overwhelming support from workers.”
Commentary: How Much Longer Will Democrats Support the PRO Act?
June 29, 2023 // When the act was introduced in 2019 and 2021, I voted against it both times. Members should not be fooled by the so-called pro-worker rhetoric that has accompanied the PRO Act. You can be pro-worker without hitching your wagon to a poisonous bill that advances an ideological attack on small business owners. So next time your sink backs up or your chimney needs sweeping, think of the PRO Act and those who are pushing it.
BACKGROUNDER: Employee Rights Act
June 26, 2023 // Sponsored by Rick Allen (R-GA) The Employee Rights Act of 2025 safeguards and strengthens the rights of American workers. It guarantees workers’ right to a secret ballot election, ensures they can work directly with their employer if they opt-out of union membership, protects worker privacy, allows workers to choose to fund union politics or not, provides legal clarity for small business owners and independent contractors, and guarantees fair representation for all American workers.
In Advance of Senate HELP Markup, AFP Leads Coalition Urging Senators to Reject PRO Act
June 21, 2023 // Instead of supporting these bills that prioritize top-down government mandates and the preferences of union leadership over the needs of America’s workers, we call on lawmakers to defend and expand choice and flexibility for workers so that they are best able to address the challenges of and maximize opportunities in the 21st century economy. We strongly urge you to reject the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the Healthy Families Act, and the Paycheck Fairness Act, and we look forward to working with you to pursue a path forward that puts workers, not special interests, first.
Google Contract Staff That Helped Train AI Seek To Unionize
June 9, 2023 // The group is organizing with the Alphabet Workers Union, and said it has signed up the vast majority of its proposed bargaining unit, which includes about 120 writers, graphic designers and launch coordinators who create internal and external Google content, including all of the materials for Google Help support pages. They’ve also recently helped to review AI-generated content. The workers said they hope to bargain for changes including increased paid time off, control over accepting assignments outside the scope of their usual work and competitive pay that reflects their skill sets. The employees are asking management to voluntarily recognize and negotiate with the union. The workers contend Alphabet is a “joint employer” — a company with enough control over a group of employees to be liable for their treatment and obligated to negotiate if they unionize, even if it doesn’t sign their paychecks.