Federal labor agencies have kicked their rulemaking efforts into high gear. One month after the U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule defining (and limiting) when one entity can be deemed the joint employer of another’s employees, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has followed suit. On February 26, 2020, the NLRB issued a final rule, establishing–for the first time–a federal regulation with a clear standard for determining joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations Act. The rule has been in the pipeline for a long time. It was first proposed in 2018, but the NLRB received almost 29,000 comments in response. It has taken the NLRB about 18 months–and nearly 200 pages in the Federal Register–to consider those comments and adopt a final rule. This rule is scheduled to become effective on April 27, 2020.
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