Senator Blunt Continues Efforts to Protect Small Businesses, Jobs from Harmful NLRB Ruling

Press Release

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined fellow Senate and House Republican lawmakers as a cosponsor of the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, which would overturn the National Labor Relations Board joint employer ruling and reaffirm the existing standard to protect small business owners and workers.

"The NLRB's ruling last week threatens irreparable damage to the franchise model, hurting small businesses and the middle class in our state and nationwide," said Blunt. "The franchise model gives many individuals the opportunity to own their own business, and has helped many more join and rise up in the middle class. This decision by the NLRB will negatively impact jobs, upward mobility, and growth. I am pleased to cosponsor the Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act, which is an important step forward in overturning this harmful decision. I'll keep fighting to protect hardworking Missourians and ensure that an appropriate legal standard is defined for joint-employers."

On August 27, 2015, the NLRB released its 3-2 decision involving Browning-Ferris Industries of California. This decision allowed the NLRB to redefine its joint-employer status, declaring that two or more entities are "joint employers of a single workforce" if those entities are both employers by law, and both "share or codetermine." This decision will have an immediate impact on the franchise model since a corporate office can now be held liable for employment decisions made at individual franchisees.

Blunt is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies, and held an oversight hearing on May 14, 2015 where he questioned the chairman and general counsel of the NRLB on the joint employer standard. A funding prohibition was also included in Blunt's FY2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

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