Providing for Congressional Disapproval Under the Rule Submitted By the National Labor Relations Board Relating to ``Standard for Determining Joint Employer Status''
Floor Speech
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Ms. BONAMICI. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of workers and franchisees and in opposition to this harmful resolution.
The joint resolution we are debating today would reverse a rule of the National Labor Relations Board that clarifies who or what is a joint employer. Under this rule, employers can no longer use subcontractors or a staffing or temporary agencies to block the opportunity for hardworking Americans to bargain for fair wages or safer workplaces.
The Biden administration's joint employer rule will help workers and grow the middle class by restoring the NLRB's ability to consider an employer's control over an employee when determining joint employer status. This is not new. It was the law for decades.
Also, I want to push back on the arguments that some of my colleagues continue to make that a strong joint employer rule threatens the franchise model. It does not.
As a lawyer who formerly represented franchisees, I know the franchise model, and I know how it works. A franchisor does not have an employer relationship with the franchisee's employees. Additionally, franchisors do not determine the terms and conditions of their franchisee's employees. It is the franchisee who runs the business and controls the employees. That is freedom.
In fact, the rule actually helps franchisees, because it discourages franchisors from trying to micromanage the franchisee's employees. In fact, as Ranking Member Scott has made clear, the NLRB has never found a franchisor to be a joint employer.
Now, the chair mentioned this increase in expenses. Well, they certainly are not the expenses of the franchisees. I would expect that a significant amount of that money has been lobbying against this rule and spreading misinformation about how the sky is falling for franchisees when, I repeat, there has never been a franchisor who has been found to be a joint employer.
The rule works. Let's stand with workers and defeat this joint resolution.
For these reasons, I oppose H.J. Res. 98, and I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``no.''
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