The Standard for Determining Joint-Employer Status

In order to more effectively enforce the National Labor Relations Act (the Act or the NLRA) and to further the purposes of the Act, the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) proposes to revise its regulation regarding the standard for determining whether two employers, as defined in Section 2(2) of the Act, are a joint employer of a group of employees under the NLRA.

The proposed rule would revise the standard for determining whether two employers, as defined in section 2(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), are joint employers of particular employees within the meaning of section 2(3) of the Act. The proposed changes are designed to explicitly ground the joint-employer standard in established common-law agency principles and provide relevant guidance to parties covered by the Act regarding their rights and responsibilities when more than one statutory employer possesses the authority to control or exercises the power to control particular employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the standard for determining joint employer status was published in the Federal Register on September 7, 2022, which can be found here.

Comments may be submitted through http://regulations.gov or by mail or hand delivery to Roxanne L. Rothschild, Executive Secretary, National Labor Relations Board, 1015 Half Street S.E., Washington, D.C. 20570-0001. The rulemaking docket RIN is 3142-AA21. Comments must be submitted by 11:59 pm on November 7, 2022 in order to be considered. Responsive comments will be due to be submitted no later than 11:59 pm on November 21, 2022.

On October 14, 2022, the Board extended the deadline for submitting comments. Initial comments must be received by December 7, 2022, and responses to initial comments must be received by December 21, 2022.

• Press Release (September 6, 2022)