Trial opened last week before a NLRB
Administrative Law Judge in New York regarding the extent of the
NLRB’s joint employer doctrine. The trial seeks to have
McDonald’s named the joint employer of the employees of its
franchisees. Why? The simple answer is that a joint employer
finding would substantially simplify union organizing.
The case promises to be a long slog. Even a cursory look at the
opening statement made by Jamie Rucker, lead counsel for the NLRB,
shows that it is not McDonald’s but all of franchising that
is on trial. The statement took aim at many things common in
franchising today: the use of programs to help franchisees identify
strong candidates for employment; brand standards, such as the
amount of time McDonald’s specifies in which orders are to be
taken and filled; suggestions made by operations consultants hired
by the franchisor; suggested local-market pay scales; and even
standard form libraries. These types of things are the
bread-and-butter
