First, I’m not a labor relations lawyer.
But having said that, McDonald’s and most other franchise owners shouldn’t be worried about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling yesterday on what constitutes a “joint-employer” status.
That ruling, which essentially returns to pre-1980’s standards for what constitutes a joint-employer relationship, doesn’t appear to be a threat to the small business franchise owners in America. Unions will not be able to consider all the employees of similar franchises as one group of employees for collective bargaining. The ruling says the following:
Under this standard, the Board (NLRB) may find that two or more statutory employers are joint employers of the same statutory employees if they “share or codetermine those matters governing the essential terms and conditions of employment”.
I spoke with a McDonald’s franchise owner this morning and he made it very clear that corporate McDonald’s doesn’t tell him who to hire, fire or discipline. They don’t tell him how much to pay employees or dictate schedules or other benefits.
I am guessing that most franchises are in complete control of their employees. Thus, in my non-legal opinion, yesterday’s NLRB ruling will have no impact on millions of small business franchise owners with possibly one exception.
The NLRB ruling’s impact on temporary staffing agencies (some of which are franchises) in particular and possibly subcontractors is another story. Expect to see some changes in these business relationships. Hopefully there will be some silver lining for small businesses that are actually affected by the ruling. We’ll have to wait and see.