Employment Law Now VI-120 - Joint Employer Ping Pong
III-38- Part 2 on Employee Marijuana Use and Two Key NLRB Developments
The Texas Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision against a franchisor based on a theory of negligence after a customer was assaulted by an employee of the franchisee. The court concluded that franchisor did not owe a...more
The Supreme Court of Texas recently ruled that franchisor Massage Heights did not owe a duty of care to a massage customer who alleged a sexual assault, because, among other reasons, Massage Heights had neither the...more
In the ever-evolving landscape of employment law, a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) opinion, Patel v. 7-Eleven, Inc., has shed light on a critical question: When is a franchisee considered an employee of the...more
Patel v. 7-Eleven, a case in Massachusetts, has been closely watched since the ABC test took hold of franchise relationships in employee misclassification cases across the country. A putative class of 7-Eleven franchisees...more
A business is a joint employer of another employer’s employees only if the two employers share or codetermine the employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment, according to a recently unveiled and long-awaited...more
In a case that should grab the attention of franchisors across the country, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that McDonald’s Corporation is not the joint employer of the employees of a...more
The Ninth Circuit ruled on October 1, 2019, that McDonald’s cannot be held liable for wage and hour violations allegedly committed by a franchisee in California because McDonald’s did not exert sufficient control over the...more
Employees of a Merry Maids home cleaning franchise brought a class action against the franchisee, the franchisor, its owner and affiliated entities claiming they were joint employers. A California federal district court...more
• In SuperShuttle DFW, Inc., a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB, or Board) majority overruled its 2014 decision in FedEx Home Delivery and held that shuttle-van-driver franchisees of SuperShuttle at Dallas Fort Worth...more
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision relating to the test for joint employment under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The decision upheld the Administrative Law Judge’s ruling that two entities...more
On December 14, 2017, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, Ltd., 365 NLRB No. 156 (2017) expressly overruled the divisive joint-employer standard adopted by Browning-Ferris...more
A franchisor's investment in brand standards, protection and control often comes at a cost when a consumer believing or claiming to believe the franchisor and franchisee are the same, seeks to hold a franchisor liable for a...more
Prudent franchisors have been reducing their apparent control over franchisees' employees to reduce the risk of becoming joint employers of those employees. But could a franchisor's control over the franchisees themselves be...more
Marking a sea-change in labor law and a departure from decades of settled precedent, the National Labor Relations Board formulated a new joint employer standard in August 27’s Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc....more
Since last Thursday, the Internet has been buzzing with news of the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., which held that a Silicon Valley recycling center was a “joint...more
A recent ruling of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or the “Board”) dramatically expands the circumstances in which the Board will hold companies responsible for the labor practices of their staffing agencies,...more
The Louisiana legislature recently passed Act 404 of the 2015 legislative session, clarifying that in most circumstances franchisees are the sole employers of their employees. The bill was signed by Governor Bobby Jindal on...more
Employers are beginning to learn that they may have far more employees than they think. A driver for the ride sharing company Uber was considered an “employee” by the California Labor Commissioner’s Office earlier this month....more
The National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, who is recommending that the Board dramatically alter the joint-employer doctrine, admitted that his proposal may run into “a problem legally” when it comes to...more