NLRB Reinstates Liberal Standard For Unionizing Temp Workers

In today's 3-1 decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) resurrected a union-friendly standard making it easier for unions to combine jointly employed temporary workers with an employer's existing workforce to form a union. For over a decade, employers had enjoyed a standard which permitted them to block such a combined pairing by refusing to provide consent. As of today, however, that standard has been scrapped (Miller & Anderson, Inc.).

As reported in our August 2015 Alert, the NLRB's issuance of a new standard for determining if two businesses are "joint employers" for collective bargaining purposes was just the first step in an effort to provide unions an advantage in trying to organize temporary employees (Browning-Ferris of California, Inc.). With today's decision in Miller & Anderson, the other shoe has dropped.