NLRB Joint Employer Ruling Undermines Small Businesses and IP

The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council quotes Trey Kovacs on labor regulators efforts to expand the joint employer standard. 

This effort to expand the “joint employer” definition flies in the face of labor law going back nearly seventy years. As Trey Kovacs of the Competitive Enterprise Institute recently explained:

“In 1947, in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that broadened the meaning of an employer-employee relationship, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley amendments that reformed the National Labor Relations Act. Of the revisions to the NLRA, modifications to terms ‘employer’ and ‘employee’ were made so that direct and immediate control is what established an employment relationship, not ‘economic realities,’ or any other broader test than used under common law. Congress, in 1947, stressed that ‘direct supervision’ is required to establish an employment relationship. Further, Browning-Ferris argues that even the ‘Court’s analysis of employment relationships under the NLRA, which has emphasized the importance of direct and immediate control over key employment terms.’ It is easy to see how the new joint employer standard, which includes indirect control, is inconsistent with the NLRA and Taft-Hartley amendments.”

Read the full article at the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.