Senior living providers planning to submit comments on the proposed rule for determining “joint employer” status received the gift of time after the National Labor Relations Board extended the deadline on Friday.
The proposed rule is of special interest to senior living providers that use temporary or contract workers, as well as operators that are part of franchises. The new deadline to file comments is Dec. 7, with replies to those comments due by Dec. 21. The NLRB said that no further extensions will be granted, barring “extraordinary circumstances.”
Argentum welcomed news of the extended comment period but emphasized its opposition to the proposed standard.
The association’s vice president of government relations, Paul Williams, told McKnight’s Senior Living, that it will “continue efforts in conjunction with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, US Chamber of Commerce and others to defeat it.”
The current rule holds that a business is a joint employer under the National Labor Relations Act only where it has “substantial direct and immediate control” over the essential terms and conditions of another company’s employee.
Under the proposed rule announced Sept. 6, two or more employers would be considered joint employers if they share or codetermine an employee’s “essential terms and conditions of employment,” such as compensation, work and scheduling, hiring and discharge, discipline, workplace health and safety, supervision, assignment and work rules.
McKnight’s Senior Living previously reported that the expanded definition means that senior living providers would face increased exposure and liability to the extent they use employees and staff provided by a third party, such as a staffing agency. The expanded joint employer test also would give labor organizations more options to increase organizing and add more members.
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires covered employers to pay their employees at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked, as well as overtime for eligible workers for every hour worked over 40 in a work week.
