Joint-Employer Questions Raised in New NLRB McDonald’s Case

The federal labor board’s top prosecutor declined to pursue charges against McDonald’s Corp. for “meritorious” violations of labor law at a California restaurant, signaling that his office won’t seek to punish a parent company if a regional subsidiary acknowledges to be the direct employer.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Peter Robb indicated in a little-noticed filing late last week that he would accept a settlement brokered by one of the board’s regional offices, rejecting an appeal from the Service Employees International Union, which had argued that McDonald’s national corporate headquarters and a regional subsidiary are “indistinguishable corporate entities.”

The ...