GOP Leaders Fight Back Against NLRB Decision

The franchise industry is not lying down in the wake of the National Labor Relations Board decision to expand the joint-employer standard.

Republican leaders of the House and Senate labor committees introduced legislation this week to undo the recent NLRB decision. Under the new standard, employers may have new obligations and liabilities under federal labor law in relation to employees of others companies with which they do business. Franchisees and franchisors are two of the biggest groups that could be adversely affected by the decision.

"The NLRB’s new joint-employer standard would make big businesses bigger and the middle class smaller by discouraging companies from franchising and contracting work to small businesses," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said of the legislation in a statement. "Our common-sense proposal would restore policies in place long before the NLRB’s radical decision, the very same policies that served workers, employers, and consumers well for decades."