Top U.S. Hotel Lobby Sues Biden Administration Over Labor Regulation

09.11.2023 - 22:23 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Chip Rogers

The American Hotel & Lodging Association on Thursday joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other upset parties in filing a lawsuit in a federal court in Texas questioning the legality of a National Labor Relations Board “joint-employer” regulation announced on October 26

Until now, the law treats a company as “a joint employer” only if it has “substantial direct and immediate control” over a set of workers. Under the new federal regulation— set to go into effect the day after Christmas — a company can be considered to be a joint employer and thus must bargain collectively.

The American Hotel & Lobbying Association (AHLA), which is the largest lobbying body for the hotel sector in the country, opposes the regulation partly because it would likely make hotel franchisors jointly liable for workplace matters at franchise locations even though franchisors have no control over franchise employees.

“The NLRB’s joint-employer regulation is all about coercing businesses to the bargaining table with workers they do not actually employ to increase unionization,” said AHLA President & CEO Chip Rogers. “To achieve this, the NLRB is intentionally taking a wrecking ball to one of America’s great economic engines—the franchise model.”

Legal knowledge source JD Supra said “The revised [NLRB] test borrows from the right to control standard that has historically been applied in determining whether a group of workers are independent contractors or employees under many state and federal wage and employment laws. Under that test for independent contractor status, a worker may be deemed an employee instead of an independent contractor if, under the parties’ contract, the company reserves the right to control the manner and method of performance, regardless of whether such control is exercised.”

The suit is embedded, below.