NLRB Reverses Obama-era Ruling on Employers’ Liability for Subcontractors

The Washington Times covers the National Labro Relations Board’s reversal of the joint employer standard.

The National Labor Relations Board reversed an Obama-era ruling Thursday that had made employers potentially liable for labor-law violations committed by their subcontractors.

Now with a 3-2 Republican majority under President Trump, the board overruled its previous decision in a case from 2015 known as Browning-Ferris, calling the earlier ruling “a distortion of common law.”

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The free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute called the ruling “a crucial victory for entrepreneurs and workers nationwide” that overturned the “infamous joint employer case that threatened to ensnare countless American businesses in vast but vague new employer liability.”

“The vague and expansive joint employer standard implemented by the Obama administration needlessly restricted business-to-business relationships, hindered worker opportunities and entrepreneurship, and exposed tens of thousands of employers to increased costs and liability,” said CEI labor policy expert Trey Kovacs. “Today’s ruling restores the common sense definition of joint employer.”

Mr. Kovacs said Congress now has a duty to approve a law perpetuating the board’s ruling.

Read the full article at The Washington Times.