Republican lawmakers last week introduced legislation to roll back the National Labor Relations Board’s decision that expanded the definition of joint employment, allowing a union to negotiate with a staffing buyer over both traditionally hired and staffing firm workers based on the client employer having indirect control over the workers.

The “Protecting Local Business Opportunity Act” would roll back the NLRB ruling and allow two or more employers to be considered joint employers only if each shares and exercises control over essential terms and conditions of employment and such control over these matters is “actual, direct, and immediate.’’

“The NLRB’s new joint employer standard would make big businesses bigger and the middle class smaller by discouraging companies from franchising and contracting work to small businesses,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), in a press release. “The board’s effort to redefine the idea of what it means to be an employer will wreak havoc on families and small businesses across the country. Our commonsense proposal would restore policies in place long before the NLRB’s radical decision, the very same policies that served workers, employers, and consumers well for decades.”

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