New NLRB Appointee Could Help Fix Joint-Employer Rule

Posted April 12, 2018 at 3:45 pm



On April 11, the U.S. Senate voted 50-48 to affirm the nomination of John Ring to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to news reports. This vote restores a 3-2 Republican majority on the NLRB as Ring, a management-side labor lawyer, succeeds Philip Miscimarra, whose term expired last December.

The Senate vote to affirm Ring means that the Board could revisit a number of controversial rulings dating from the administration of President Barack Obama that were strongly opposed by business interests, including TRSA. Chief among these is the Joint-Employer rule, which drastically expanded the definition of a joint employer and independent contractor misclassification.

For commercial laundries, the practical impact of this rule is that if a laundry assigns one of its employees to oversee linen distribution in a hospital or hotel, then for union-organizing purposes, the laundry employee would come under the hospital’s or hotel’s employee status. If the hospital or hotel were unionized, then the laundry would also have to accept the union, regardless of whether or not the laundry was ever organized by a union. The converse is true if a hospital or hotel employee is assigned to work in a laundry.

Ring’s confirmation could enable the NLRB to revisit the Browning-Ferris decision, decided in August 2015, which expanded the definition of joint employer far beyond past practice. More recently, the NLRB had overturned Browning-Ferris in the Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors case. However, that ruling was vacated due to a conflict-of-interest controversy involving Board member Bill Emanuel.

The appointment of Ring means the NLRB now could accept another case that would revisit the issue of Joint Employer. TRSA has actively supported efforts to restore the more limited, traditional definition of joint employer, either through NLRB action or legislation sponsored by Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL). Click here for details.

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