Risky Business: Effects of New Joint Employer Standards for Small Firms

Professor Harris Freeman presented testimony in a hearing titled, “Risky Business: Effects of New Joint Employer Standards for Small Firms,” before the United States House Committee on Small Business’s Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations. In 2015, the National Labor Relations Board announced a revised standard in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. (BFI) for determining whether two separate businesses are joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act. Since the decision in the BFI case was rendered, the Department of Labor issued guidance on joint employment under two other statutes. Professor Freeman testimony supported: 1) that BFI’s decision is a proper exercise of the Board’s statutory authority and is consistent with Supreme Court precedent; and 2) that the Board’s return to a more inclusive joint-employer standard does no harm to America’s small businesses even as it provides a path to meaningful collective bargaining for a significant sector of the low-wage work force that has been excluded from the protections of federal labor law