{"id":145943,"date":"2025-09-15T15:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T15:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145943\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T15:32:09","slug":"bipartisan-legislation-aims-to-clarify-joint-employer-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145943\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan legislation aims to clarify \u2018joint employer\u2019 definition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CapitolBuilding_GettyImages-1362920183_1440X810-860x484.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"US Capitol Building - East Front - Washington DC\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n                                US Capitol Building (Credit: mbell \/ Getty Images)                            <\/p>\n<p>A bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers, led by Reps. Kevin Hern (R-OK) and Don Davis (D-NC), has introduced legislation that would amend the National Labor Relations Act\u2019s definition of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcknightsseniorliving.com\/tag\/joint-employer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joint employer<\/a>\u201d to align federal statute with National Labor Relations Board policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/hern.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/hernok_023_xml.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">American Franchise Act<\/a> was introduced Wednesday. Proponents say the bill would dispense with some complications faced under the current rule. Specifically, the bill states that franchisors would be considered joint employers \u201conly if they possess and exercise substantial and immediate control over essential terms and conditions of employment, like hiring workers, firing workers, setting wages and disciplinary action,\u201d according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/hern.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4128\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">press release<\/a> from Hern.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hern previously owned 24 McDonald\u2019s restaurant franchises and sold his last restaurant in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The definition of joint employer has changed frequently in recent years, depending on the administration. Those changes have \u201ccaused costly uncertainty in the industry for too long,\u201d Davis said on social media.<\/p>\n<p>The International Franchise Association <a href=\"https:\/\/www.franchise.org\/2025\/09\/ifa-applauds-introduction-of-landmark-american-franchise-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> it plans a \u201cfull-scale national and regional advocacy push for the legislation through its membership and as a founding member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/savelocalbusinesses.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Coalition to Save Local Businesses<\/a> (CSLB).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis legislation recognizes that franchisees are small businesses, and their independence must be protected by federal law,\u201d IFA President and CEO Matt Haller said. \u201cThe American Franchise Act allows franchisors to properly support their franchisees \u2014 who are often first-time business owners from all walks of life \u2014 without the fear of an overly broad joint employer standard undermining the unique benefits of the franchise relationship. On behalf of America\u2019s 831,000 franchise small businesses, we are grateful that the decade-long uncertainty around joint employer policy can finally come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education &amp; the Workforce for further review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Capitol Building (Credit: mbell \/ Getty Images) A bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers, led by Reps. Kevin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[45,49,48,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-145943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}