Labor Board Ethics Drama Sends Big Case Back to Court (2)

An appeals court in Washington won’t decide what to do with a controversial case that has big stakes for franchise and other businesses until the National Labor Relations Board resolves a related dispute clouded by ethics concerns.

The case, Browning-Ferris Industries, centers on one of the most contentious labor law questions in recent years: When can one business be considered a “joint employer” of another’s workers? The NLRB in the recent Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors case changed its answer to that question. Then the board promptly scrapped its Hy-Brand decision because of conflicts-of-interest concerns dogging one it the decisonmakers in ...