By Chris Opfer
August 16, 2018
A pair of House lawmakers and some influential advocacy groups want the Labor Department to take a corporate-friendly approach to a big workplace policy question: When can multiple businesses be considered “joint employers,” with each liable for minimum wage and overtime pay violations?
Reps. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) recently asked Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to issue a new regulation updating joint employer liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg Law. The lawmakers—along with groups such as the International Franchise Association and HR Policy Association—want the department to limit the circumstances in which one business can be considered a joint employer of another’s workers.
