The following is an excerpt from breaking news report from The Hill written by by Tim Devaney:

“The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday handed down one of the biggest decisions of the Obama presidency, ruling that companies can be held equally responsible for labor violations committed by their contractors.

“At issue is whether waste management firm Browning-Ferris is responsible for the treatment of its contractor’s employees. The Houston-based company hired Leadpoint Business Services to staff a recycling facility in California.

“The labor board determined Browning-Ferris should be considered a joint employer with the Phoenix-based staffing agency. As a result, the company could be pulled into collective bargaining negotiations with those employees and held liable for any labor violations committed against them.

“This is a sharp departure from previous labor laws that hold companies responsible only for employees who are under their direct control by setting their hours, wages, or job responsibilities. Companies could avoid those requirements by hiring staffing agencies and subcontractors that deal more closely with the workers. . . .

“The ruling could have an impact on not only Browning-Ferris and other garbage disposal businesses, but also companies such as restaurants, retailers, manufacturers, hotels, cleaning services, construction firms, security providers and staffing agencies.

“Businesses are threatening to cut ties with staffing agencies that help recruit temporary workers and subcontractors that provide janitorial and security services because they don’t want to be responsible for another company’s employees. They say they would rather bring those jobs in-house to establish more control over the situation.

“Restaurants could see the biggest changes. Fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King will likely assert more authority over—or even cut ties altogether with—local franchise owners, businesses say.”

Devaney’s complete article is available at: http://thehill.com/regulation/labor/252124-obama-administration-issues-controversial-labor-ruling.

The full text of the NLRB decision is available at: file:///C:/Users/Michael/Downloads/Board%20Decision.pdf