The issue started with the NLRB’s 2015 decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186, which overturned 30 years of precedent and established that employers could be held responsible as joint employers by doing as little as reserving control, or exerting indirect control, over workers of another company. This overturned three decades…

More than 50 businesses and trade groups are asking Congress to pass legislation to repeal the National Labor Board’s new joint employer standard. As a reminder, in August 2015, the NLRB ruled that “indirect” and “potential” control over workers’ terms and conditions makes a company a joint employer. This rule change exposed a broad range…

Doctor’s Associates, Inc., which is the owner and franchisor for the Subway sandwich restaurant chain entered into a Voluntary Agreement with the US Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division “as part of Subway’s broader efforts to make its franchised restaurants and overall business operations socially responsible” and as part of Subway’s “effort to…

We have reported on the SEIU’s campaign for $15-an-hour wages for fast food workers. Seeking to have franchisees pay nearly twice the minimum wage for historically minimum wage work is not the way to befriend fast food franchisees. Now, the SEIU is extending a proverbial french fry to franchisees in hopes of forming an alliance…

McDonald’s workers recently filed complaints with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 19 cities alleging burns from popping grease, lack of protective equipment, and other workplace hazards. The complaints are a tool to exert public pressure on McDonald’s as fast food workers campaign for $15 an hour wages and unionization. The Service…

Employees of a Subway franchise in Bloomsbury, N.J. voted 8-5 to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Local 108. While this is great fodder for unions to hark the success of its 3-year effort to organize the fast food industry, these 13 employees are hardly the poster children for a successful campaign.…