Businesses Push 9th Cir. Redo on ABC Test for Franchise Workers

Business groups want the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider a decision on California’s rigid test that determines who is an employee, arguing the current test has the potential to upend “the core premise of all existing franchise agreements” and create confusion across the state for companies and lower courts.

The International Franchise Association encouraged the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit to reconsider a decision from earlier this year that said a three-part worker classification test applied to franchise businesses in the state. That analysis, known as the “ABC test,” would make it harder for companies to structure ...