On July 29, 2014, Richard Griffin, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), announced that McDonald’s Corporation could be deemed a “joint employer” of its franchisees’ employees asserting claims of alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).1 As a consequence, Griffin announced on Dec. 29, 2014, that the NLRB filed charges against McDonald’s Corporation as a joint employer in 86 unfair labor practice complaints filed against McDonald’s and its franchisees by those franchisees’ employees over the past 24 months.

Griffin’s announcement comes against the background of labor unions pressuring fast food restaurants to adopt a $15 per hour wage floor (and against the larger political backdrop of claimed “income inequality” in America). Since 90 percent of McDonald’s restaurants in the United States are franchised, McDonald’s (and other franchisors) respond that they do not set employee wages, franchisees do. However, Griffin’s charges (the NLRB General counsel brings charges, the NLRB adjudicates them), if adopted by the National Labor Relations Board, would give rise to McDonald’s Corporation being the joint employer of its franchisees’ employees and, as a consequence, would enable unions to collectively bargain with McDonald’s itself (as opposed to thousands of individual franchisees).

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