{"id":5296,"date":"2015-09-10T09:14:45","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T09:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/?p=5296"},"modified":"2015-09-10T09:14:45","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T09:14:45","slug":"the-results-are-in-you-are-now-a-joint-employer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2015\/09\/the-results-are-in-you-are-now-a-joint-employer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Results Are In: You Are Now a Joint-Employer"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the restaurant industry, it is a well-known fact that franchising is an extremely profitable business model. As a National Restaurant News (NRN) commenter stated, \u201cYou can\u2019t franchise failure \u2013 only success. If almost 100 years of franchising in the USA wasn\u2019t good for our country, it wouldn\u2019t be so well accepted\u201d (NRN Comment Section<\/a>). Unfortunately, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and many within the U.S.\u2019s labor force, franchising relationships are not being accepted as well as the industry believes.<\/p>\n

For nearly three decades, the NLRB stood by its broad definition of what it means to be an \u201cemployer\u201d by separating franchisors and franchisees depending on the parent company\u2019s \u201cdirect or immediate\u201d level of supervision \u2013 until now. This means that an employee that works for a franchisee-owned McDonald\u2019s could now be employed by both the franchisee and McDonald\u2019s Corp.<\/p>\n

Those in favor for the redefinition believe that major companies will no longer be able to hide behind the veil of abusive corporate practices that hinder workers to organize and ultimately impede on franchisee operations.<\/p>\n

In an Inc.com article, employment law specialist Michael J. Lotito stated, \u201cThe current method for determining joint employer status revolves around \u2018direct control\u2019 — who hires, fires, directs and evaluates the employees on a day-to-day basis.\u201d If this changes, major corporations like McDonald\u2019s will be held \u201cliable in worker lawsuits, and potentially responsible in any collective bargaining activity.\u201d It sounds nice, wholesome, and the \u201cright thing to do,\u201d but there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the same company that is now liable for its current employees could also be considered a \u201cjoint employer,\u201d for example the new janitorial agency they just hired. Since the company has direct control over the hiring and firing of the agency as a whole, the contracted janitorial staff is now essentially considered employees of the parent company. It\u2019s a slippery slope to a downward spiral many restaurant operators and industry leaders are well aware of, but no one seems to be listening.<\/p>\n

According to Forbes contributing writer, Tim Worstall, the NLRB\u2019s decision \u201ccalls into question the entire validity of the franchise system. Imagine the upheaval in the fast-food industry if tens of thousands of restaurants accustomed to operating independently suddenly were forced to work hand in hand with franchisers on every employment-related decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent NRN article, Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, further reiterated that the NLRB\u2019s decision is a \u201cdangerous path that dissolves the long-established \u2018joint-employer standard\u2019 that has helped create millions of restaurant jobs.\u201d Additionally, the decision \u201cwill have dire consequences to franchisees, franchise employees and the economy as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for McDonald\u2019s, the hits keep coming. In December 2014, the NLRB designated McDonald\u2019s as being a \u201cjoint employer\u201d with its numerous franchisees, and was just recently denied the company\u2019s attempt to appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the restaurant industry, it is a well-known fact that franchising is an extremely profitable business model. As a National Restaurant News (NRN) commenter stated, \u201cYou can\u2019t franchise failure \u2013 only success. If almost 100 years of franchising in the USA wasn\u2019t good for our country, it wouldn\u2019t be so well accepted\u201d (NRN Comment Section).… Continue reading The Results Are In: You Are Now a Joint-Employer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-5296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurant-foodservice","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}