Alexander: Secretary Acosta Begins Rollback of Obama-era Assault on Franchise Model, Restores Focus to Worker Protections

WASHINGTON, June 7 — The Senate labor committee chairman today praised the decision by Labor Secretary Acosta to withdraw Obama administration guidance that had instructed investigators with the Wage and Hour Administration – which is focused on worker protections – to instead ask questions to determine whether a franchisee and franchisor are joint employers.

"Secretary Acosta was absolutely right to withdraw this guidance and restore wage and hour investigators' focus on worker protections. The NLRB’s joint-employer decision was the biggest attack on the opportunity for small businessmen and women in this country to make their way into the middle class that anyone has seen in a long time—threatening to destroy the American Dream for owners of the nation’s 780,000 franchise location—and that threat increased when the agency in charge of worker protections attempted implementing its own joint employer enforcement," said Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

The National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, joint employer ruling is now being challenged in court. Alexander held a hearing on that decision in 2015.  

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