House Introduces Bill to Reign in Expansion of Joint Employer Definition

Recently, House Republicans renewed efforts to reign in expansion of two federal labor laws’ joint employer definition by introducing the Save Local Business Act (“SLRA”) (H.R. 3441). The SLRA limits how affiliated companies are considered joint employers for collective bargaining liability purposes and within wage and hour laws.

The SLRA represents an expanded effort to reverse the National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (Aug. 27, 2015) decision. In Browning-Ferris, the NLRB reversed a 30-year old standard for determining joint employer status under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). According to Browning-Ferris, affiliated companies are joint employers if they 1) “are both employers within the meaning of the common law” and 2) “share or co-determine” matters governing the essential terms and conditions of employment. Under the first prong, the NLRB focuses on a company’s “right to control” employees and does not consider whether the company exercises that right. For example, a company may create a common law employer relationship if it reserves ultimate discharge authority over temporary workers but does not exercise that right. For the second prong, the NLRB defines “essential terms and conditions” to include wages, hours, hiring, firing, and supervision. Evidence of controlling these “essential terms and conditions” may include dictating the number of contingent workers supplied and controlling schedules or overtime.

The SLRA also addresses recent expansion of the joint employer definition by courts under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). For example, in Salinas v. Commercial Interiors, Inc., 848 F.3d 125 (4th Cir. 2017), the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, covering Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia, applied an expanded test to conclude that general and subcontractors were joint employers. Under the Salinas-applied test, joint employment exists when 1) two companies “share, agree to allocate responsibility for, or otherwise codetermine – formally or informally, directly or indirectly – the essential terms and conditions of a worker’s employment” and 2) the companies’ combined influence “over the terms and conditions of the worker’s employment” renders the person an employee instead of an independent contractor. This determination has significant implications because, as joint employers, both companies must comply with the FLSA as it relates to an individual’s entire employment for a workweek. In other words, a company must add the hours worked for both employers to determine whether and to what extent the individual earned overtime pay.

The SLRA rolls back these expanded definitions by redefining joint employer in both the NLRA and FLSA.  Specifically, under the Act:

A person may be considered a joint employer in relation to an employee only if such person directly, actually, and immediately, and not in a limited and routine manner, exercises significant control over the essential terms and conditions of employment (including hiring employees, discharging employees, determining individual employee rates of pay and benefits, day-to-day supervision of employees, assigning individual work schedules, positions, and tasks, and administering employee discipline).

Ultimately, the bill seeks to reinstate the traditional joint employer standard and restore some semblance of predictability that the NLRB eviscerated in the Browning-Ferris decision. Although the House is on recess, the bill will almost assuredly proceed within Education and Workforce Committee upon Congress’s September return. In addition, the bill could quickly move to the House floor for consideration and, with sufficient support, advance to the Senate. Frantz Ward will keep close track of the bill and provide updates on the SLRA’s progress.