Offering franchisors a glimmer of hope on the joint employment front, the National Labor Relations Board’s Office of the General Counsel recently issued a memorandum of advice that concluded a franchisee, franchisor, and the franchisor’s development agent were not joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act. Notably, the advice memorandum issued by Associate General Counsel Barry Kearney found that a Chicago-based franchisee and franchisor were not joint employers under either the current standard for determining joint employment, or the significantly looser standard advocated by NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin. The advice memorandum found no evidence the entities codetermined any matters “governing the essential terms and conditions of employment” with the franchisee’s employees.
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