February 11th, 2015
Small business coalition lobbies Congress to rein in NLRB
By Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner
A new coalition representing small business said it would lobby Congress to rein in the National Labor Relations Board. The group, calling itself the Coalition to Save Local Businesses, said the board’s recent moves to change the legal definition of “joint employer” in a case against McDonald’s Corp. could have severe negative consequences for small businesses across the country if left unchecked by Congress.
Currently, most franchises are privately-owned businesses that essentially rent out the parent corporation’s brand name. They are therefore considered legally separate entities. In the McDonalds case, the NLRB said it would use a broader “economic realities” test that could erase the prior definition if it became a legal precedent. The NLRB is currently considering a separate case, Browning-Ferris, that could broaden the definition of joint employer even further.