Labor Board’s Joint Employer Rule Meets Skeptical Federal Judge

A federal judge in Texas criticized a National Labor Relations Board regulation broadening the legal test for determining when multiple companies jointly employ workers, which a coalition of business groups is challenging in his courtroom.

The NLRB’s new joint employer rule “seems to create a lot more uncertainty, or at least opportunity for disagreement in practice” than the narrower Trump-era measure that it’s replacing, Judge J. Campbell Barker said at a hearing Tuesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

“To me, it seems like by removing some bright lines in the 2020 rule, it’s only ...