Press Releases

Small Business Roundtable on Potential Joint Employer Standard

WASHINGTON - Today, Small Business Committee Members hosted industry representatives for a roundtable discussion on the impact that the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) potential new Joint Employer Standard would have on American workers and small businesses.

For the last 30 years, the NLRB has determined two businesses to be a joint employer if they share “direct and immediate control over employment matters.” But just last year, the NLRB General Counsel filed a brief in a pending case urging the Board to abandon this standard for a radically different approach.

The discussion was led by the Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulation Chairman Cresent Hardy (R-NV).  

“It is clear from the discussion this morning that a broader joint employer standard will have a chilling effect on small businesses,” said Chairman Hardy. “The NLRB’s actions could have devastating impacts on business-to-business relationships, which for many small firms are critical to their operation. It is already affecting decisions about whether to hire a new employee or open a new business, and if a new standard is adopted it will hit small businesses, particularly franchisees and contractors, the hardest. For a large firm, this new standard will impact how they do business.  For a small guy, it will determine if they do business.”

“All small businesses are under attack with this rule,” said Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot. “In typical Washington fashion, the NLRB is creating a bureaucratic solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.   I commend Chairman Hardy for his leadership on this issue and for his relentless energy in representing the workers and small businesses in Nevada and throughout our country.” 

###