Businesses Now Have Until March 11 To Comply With Federal Joint Employer Rule

Last week, Connecting the Dots reported the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) joint employer regulation would go into effect in late February. Shortly after publication of that newsletter, a federal judge delayed implemented of the rule by two weeks, until March 11.

The delay will give the court time to determine the constitutionality of the regulation. Indeed, Judge, J. Campbell Barker promised “an opinion with the court’s reasoning will be issued forthwith.”

The judge’s decision came less than two weeks after the court heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), a group that the Metals Service Center Institute supports. The decision is a small, but important victory for employers.

As Safety and Health Magazine explained, in its updated rule, the NLRB changed the criteria for determining when two or more entities are joint employers. Those “essential terms and conditions” include:

• Responsibility for worker safety and health;
• Wages, benefits, and other compensation;
• Hours of work and scheduling;
• Assignment of duties to be performed;
• Supervision of the performance of duties;
• Work rules and directions governing the manner, means and methods of the performance of duties, and the grounds for discipline; and
• Tenure of employment, including hiring and discharge.

As HR Brew reported, in the hearing in the CDW lawsuit, Judge Barker appeared to express concern about the regulation’s practical effect on collective bargaining. The owners of several different office buildings, for example, might be expected to negotiate with one union representing janitorial workers employed by separate companies, he suggested.

How will this case ultimately come out? Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots for news about this ongoing litigation.