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Labor unions cheered the decision,
saying it will help vulnerable workers
challenge unresponsive employers.
“Simply put, labor laws in America have
failed to keep pace as the workplace has
continued to evolve,” AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka said in a statement.
The NLFB ruling could affect the
growing number of temporary workers
and independent contractors who do
not receive the same protections as full-
time employees.
Rather than hiring their own employees,
many companies have grown accustomed
to turning to staffing agencies to supply
temporary workers or contract with
other companies to complete tasks.
The arrangement provides them with
less responsibility than for in-house
employees, but it can also place those
employees in somewhat of a no man’s
land. They don’t know who their boss is,
because the person who tells them what
to do does not pay them.
The NLRB is seeking to end that
situation by holding that both companies
responsible as joint employers, because
they “share or co-determine those
matters governing the essential terms
and conditions of employment.”
Teamsters union General President Jim
Hoffa called the ruling a “victory for
workers across America.”
“Employers will no longer be able to shift
responsibility for their workers and hide
behind loopholes to prevent workers
from organizing or engaging in collective
bargaining,” Hoffa said.
The decision is the latest in a string of
major victories for labor groups under the
Obama administration, which has already
issued several sweeping executive actions
on worker protections and wages.
The NLRB, which now has a Democratic
majority, has also taken steps to make it
easier for employees to unionize.
The two Republican appointees on the
labor board, Harry Johnson and Philip
Miscimarra, dissented from Thursday’s
3-2 ruling.
They argued that “no bargaining table is
big enough” for two companies.
“Changing the test for identifying the
‘employer,’ therefore, has dramatic
implications for labor relations policy and
its effect on the economy,” they wrote.
Business groups had been on the
warpath in anticipation of the Browning-
Ferris decision.
The National Federation of Indep-
endent Business (NFIB), for instance,
warned it could “blow up” longstanding
business models.
The National Retail Federation (NRF)
denounced the ruling as an instance
of “unelected government bureaucrats
creating roadblocks in the path of
job creation.”
“This is further evidence that the NLRB has
given up its position as an objective arbiter
of workplace issues and sees itself as an
advocate for organized labor as a means of
imposing new workplace obligations and legal
liabilities on well-known corporations,” said
David French, the NRF’s senior vice president
for government relations.