After years of fast-food restaurants being in progressive crosshairs—facing everything from new labor laws to attempts to ban drive-thrus—there may be a beacon of hope on the horizon in the form of an unexpectedly bipartisan bill in Congress.
One of the most dire threats fast-food joints face is the push to revise joint employer standards for the industry. This change would make parent franchisors liable for the legal violations of individual franchisee outlets, threatening the entire franchise business model. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden issued rules specifying that a joint employer relationship was created whenever two business entities shared or codetermined the terms and conditions of employment for workers.
